points and Doctrines which I leave to the more learned to discuss That which I shall insist upon here shall be according to my principal purpose to deliver their seditious Paradoxes and shew unto the World how much their new refined doctrine doth derogate from Royalty and that sovereign Authority which belongeth unto aâ—l Kings Princes and States rightly constituted and how much it favoreth the worst of Governments that is Pure Democraty or Popularity And I shall begin with Calvin who goeth more slily and cunningly to work nothing so rudely and bluntly as Luther First therefore for the reputation of his Consistory or Sanhedrim at Genevah he labors to dâ—base Monarchy and to prefer Aristocracy before it Non id quidem per se Instit lib. 4. c. 20. sect 10. Not in it self forsooth as if he had been very tender of the Rights of Kings but by reason of mens natural corruption Quia rarissime contingit Because it is seldom seen saith he that Princes can govern their Passions so well or are so wise and prudent as thâ—y ought to be to uphold good Government So he makes it a rare thing to finde a wise and moderate King and so concludes from a general defect which he supposeth in Kings that it is best fâ—r many joyntly and not one alone absolutely to command For saith he where many govern one supplyâ—th the dâ—fects of another both in point of Counsel and Justice This was his way politick and plausible enough to prepare the hearts of his people at Genevah to the Discipline which he intended for thâ—m For you must know the Genevians had now ejected their Bishop who was also their Sovereign Prince and had been so ever since the time of Frederick the First Bodin de Rep. So that their Monarchy was newly changed into a popular State yet governed Aristocratically which Calvin therefore smooths unto the people by such Reasons as it concerned him to do this change being as the First-fruits of his new Gospel in that City So having given this first blow to Monarchy though therein he seems to forget that himself was born at Noyon and finding himself safe at Genevah he proceeds and to prevent your objection in behalf of Monarchy That Kings have always grave and wise Counsellors to advise them and to supply their defects in case themselves be weak he gives his resolution elsewhere Kings saith he Comment in Dan. 11.26 make choice of such men for their Counsellors as can best fit their humors and accommodate themselves to their appetites in the ways of cruelty and deceit So he makes them little better by having Counsellors and stains the reputation of Counsellors themselves with a scandal intolerable Daniel But Chap. 2. v. 39. he is yet more passionate They are saith he out of their wits quite void of sense and understanding who desire to live under Sovereign Monarchies for it cannot be but order and policy must decay where one man holds such an extent of Government Yea Chap. 5. v. 25. Kings saith he oftentimes forget they are men aâ—d of the same mould with others They are stiled Dei Gratia but to what sense or purpose save onely to shew they acknowledge no Superior oâ— Earth yet under colour of this they will trample upon God with their feet so that it is but an abuse and fallacy when they are so stiled Which is a pretty descant is it not upon Dei Gratiâ and therefore Voila saith he See what the rage and madness of all Kings is with whom it is an ordinary and common thing to exclude God from the Government of the Wâ—rld And this he writ not in quality of a Statesman but of a Divine in that master-peice of his his Institutions and in his Commentaries upon Scripture he delivereth these dangerous Positions as matters of Doctrine and of Discipline to be generally received by all and makes a Nebuchadnezzar of all Kings But rather out of his own spleen then out of his Text by his good leave For to what purpose can such expressions tend but to disgrace Scepters and to scandalize all Governments that are not framed according to his own mould And therefore Chap. 6. v. 25. in Daniel hâ— chargeth them directly Darius saith he will condemn by his example all those that profess themselves at this day Catholike Kings Christian Kings and Defenders of the Faith and yet do not onely deface and bury all true Piety and Religion but corrupt and deprave the whole worship of God This indeed is work for the Cooper not by a Mar-Prelate but a Mar-Prince The most Christian King must be new Catechised he that is Catholike must be taught a new by an Uncatholike that is a private spirit and the Defender of the Faith must have a new Faith given him to defend by this great Prophet Calvin And so by a new Model all the old Religion of the Church and all the Laws of State concerning it must be abolished Thus doth Calvin presume to reform Kings and Government and pretends to build an Ark but it is of his own head to save the World having dreamt that otherwise it must perish by a deluge of Ignorance Impiety and Superstition of whom it may be truly said Plusquam regnare videtur He must be much more then a Prince himself who thus presumes to play the Aristarchus and censurer of Princes And that he may not seem to come short of Luther his Predecessor in any degree of immodesty Les Rois Chap. 6. v. 3 4. sont presque tous These Kings saith he are in a maner all of them a company of Block-heads and brutish persons as wilde and ungoverned as their Horses preferring their Bawds and their Vices above all things whatsoever Yet did he write this in an age when to say but truth the Princes of Christendom were not so extreamly debauched Lewis the Twelfth Francis the First and Henry the Second of France have left a better fame of themselves to Posterities then this So have Maximilian the First and Charls the Fifth Emperors in Germany Henry â—he Eighth of England degenerated onely in his latter times and not till he was corrupted by some principles of this Reforming Liberty In his children Edward the Sixth there was much hope at least and in Queen Mary much vertue In Scotland reigned James the Fifth and two Maries that might be canonized for their merits And for Castile and Portugal their Kings never flourished more for Government Greatness encrease of State Plenty Peace then in those times What could his meaning then be to censure them all so much for stupidity and vice but to breed a contempt of Kings and to induce people that live under Free States to despise and hate them and their own people to cast of their Government and procure their Liberties at all adventures especially under the cloak of Religion for at this he driveth altogether as knowing well That in popular and tumultuary States he
though the way of Execution was very extraordinary indeed and hath no excuse but necessity But perhaps you are ready to say This age hath reformed those errors such violencies as were formerly used are now ceased and that at present more charitable mild and civil proceedings are held by the Hugonots It is not so They have the same principles and the same spirits still which upon occasion they are not slow to manifest And to make this more plain I shall give you a relation of the true state and condition of those reformed Churches as they call themselves in France at this very time viz. Anno 1621. wherein not to trouble you with any thing concerning the infinite troubles great charges which they forced their Sovereign Lewis 13. to be at and endure all the last Summer and Winter nor concerning their Garboils at Tours nor the practises of the Rochellers to have put a Garrison of Six thousand men into Saumur on purpose to have given work to the Kings Army thereabouts and to hinder their March to Montauban nor concerning their revolt and disloyal practises at Gergeau standing out against the Count St. Paul Governour of the Province of Orleance and at Sancer against the Prince of Conde not to exaggerate the Treacheries and Conspiracies of Vattevile in Normandy which yet were so plainly proved by his own Papers and Instructions intercepted that the Duke of Longueville was compelled thereupon to disarm those of Deep Roan and Caen to prevent danger and fearing least they should joyn with Vattevile I say omitting all these which yet were actions and passages wherein much malignity and undutifulness to their Sovereign was apparent I shall begin onely with the business of St. Jean d' Angely which held out a long time and refused submission Notwithstanding the King in person demanded it of them and that Monsieur Soubize Commander of the place for the Hugonots were Summoned to render the Town or to stand to the Peril and Attaynt of Treason yet they contemned all and held it out to the very last point that they had any hopes of help left them At Montauban how was his Majestie defied and despited as it were to His Face continuing in person at the Siedge thereof for a long time together with an Army of Noble and most Expert Soldiers many of whom men of Eminent Desert and Dignity were lost in that service especially the two Brothers the Duke of Mayenne and the Marquis of Villars who were generally lamented And to draw the Kings eyes the more upon them it is said by some They had set upon their Gates this insolent Motto viz. Roy sans foy Ville sans peur importing that the King had no Faith nor the Towns no fear Yea so obstinate were they in their resolution of disobedience that for the present they forced His Majestie upon advice to defer their merited punishment and to raise the Siedge Whereupon the Insolent Burgers after the Kings Army was departed lead the whole Clergy of the Town as it were in Triumph using them with many scornful indignities for which they smarted not undeservedly the year following In Montpellier and Languedoc the Hugonots deprived Monsieur Chastillon of all his Governments by a pretended Sentence of their Consistory which is very observable and razed at the least Six and thirty Parish Churches and Chappels there Nor do they usurp onely upon the Royalties of the King though that be too much they are as bold where they prevail with the Inheritances and Estates of Private persons At Privas they would not suffer the Viscount l' Estrainge to enjoy his Lordship of that place onely because he was a Catholike They put him out of his own Castle at Lake whereof the Marshal Momorency had but lately given him possession and give it to Brison one of their own fraternity upon a pretence that it belonged to him yet was it none of the Towns of assurance nor comprized in the list at Brewet in the year 1598. neither would they permit the Kings Justices delegated thither to compound controversies so much as to hear Mass though private or to have any exercise of their Religion What Society or Common-wealth can stand if upon pretence of Religion such petulant usurpers as these may disseize Right-owners of their Estate at pleasure and hold whatsoever they get upon a pretence that it is for the use and security of some Confederate Gospellers But what cause have they to ryot thus upon their Neighbors and Fellow-subjects The King is content they should quietly enjoy what is theirs yea and securly use the liberty of their Religion Will not this content them Should not Catholikes in all reason and equity enjoy the same Yet will they not live peaceably themselves Notwithstanding such royal Favor nor Converse peaceably with Catholikes They obey not the Kings Laws for all this not I mean in Temporal Affairs wherein he onely pretends to command them At Saint Jean d' Angely the King assured them he would protect all those of the reformed Religion in France that would obey him and obseâ—ve his Edicts He promised and performed nâ— less to Mallâ—ret who was sent to him as Deputy from the Assembly of Lower Guienne He did the like to the Duke of â—removille Son in Law to Monsieur Bâ—vâ—llâ—n who came to that seidge tendring his service and protesting obedience to His Majestie was not the Government of Saumur that so famous and considerable a place given by His Majestie to the Count de Sault Grandchilde of the Duke Desdiguieres though he were known to be of the Reformed Religion Did he not long before viz. in the year 1615. answer the Petition of the Hugonots That he meant not by his Oath at Consecration which was for the Repressing of Heresies to comprehend therein Those His Subjects of the Reformed Religion who would live obediently under his Laws and Authority And how graciously the King dealt with Rochel all the world knoweth how willing was he rather to regain and reduce it then to destroy it How much and often did His Majestie employ Monsieur the Duke Desdiguieres to perswade them to conformity and obedience How much and often did he the said Duke solicite them accordingly by Letters to return to their duty proposing them Articles which all the world but themselves would have thought reasonable Yet the Deputies Chalas and Favas obstinately refused them till it was too late What can a King do more then seek the winning of his Subjects so far as 't is possible by fair and gracious means Yet see the recompence which His Majestie found from such Spirits It was no other then a long and frivolous Declaration published against his proceedings wherein instead of acknowledging their own Crimes they tax His Majestie of much injustice persecution and I know not what other designs which they charge him to prosecute by the counsel and inducement of certain persons that were Fnemies of the State as they said and
Ottoman Greatness and the whole Nation of Turks and that in a short time Ferdinand would surely be expelled out of all Germany and forced to seek his fortunes in Spain But O Monstrous O Incredible that such desperate malice and impiety should enter the hearts of any that profess themselves Christians were it not that the Records themselves be extant fide publicâ which do assure us thereof even beyond contradiction who could beleeve it O Malice implacable O Envy most perfectly diabolical And O happy house Family Name of Austria which for the interest of true Religion and Constancy to Justice deservest to be made the object of such execrable Spleen and to Combat perpetually with such odious and Antichristian Conspiracies Guicciard Lib. 20. It is no new thing But Macte istâ virtute Be faithful to God and to those principles of piety and justice descended from so many so Religious and so Renouned Ancestors and reign in spite of Hell so long as the Sun and Moon endureth The Truth is Ambition was so hungry with them that they consulted about dividing the Bears Skin before the Bear was taken They consulted how they should share among them the spoils of the German Clergy and of the house of Austria before either of them was in their power For as by their Chancery-rolls it is evident Their intent was to advance the Palatine to Bohemia Cancel Anhaltina Alsatia and some part of Austria enlarging his Dominion also with the Bishoprick of Spiers and a part of Mentz Bethlehem Gabor should be assisted to keep Hungary which afterwaâ—d this Gabor having no issue might also probably fall to the Palâ—tines lot Too many Crowns herâ—â— you will say to expect any in Heaven Onaltzbach gaped for Two fat Benefices the Bishopricks of Wâ—râ—â—burgh and Bambergh his Neighbors and therefore was it agreed that their Armies should Rendevouz in those parts The Marquis of Baden thirsted after Brisack and was willing by this occasion to continue his possession of the upper Marquisate against the more just claim of the Count Eberstein Brandenburgh expected the least of all being content onely with a part of the Bishoprick of Wirtzburgh which lay fit for him But Anhalt intended to recruit both his purse and broken fortunes with the spoils of Mentz Banbergh and other Catholike places as also with some Lands and Lordships which were like to Escheat in Bohemia If the Venetians would joyn with them they might make themselves Masters of Istria and Friuli and so Oceanum cum Adriatico as their Cancellaria speaks they might joyn Sea to Sea and Land to Land and carry all before them without controule Such were the vast but vain designs of their Ambition and Avarice But before we proceed any further it may not be amiss to examine their Plea It is manifest their design in it self was most pernicious and such as if it had taken effect which God would not suffer had been of general prejudice to the State of Christendom and not onely to the Peace of the Empire which yet every one of the Princes Confederate were bound in some relation or other to maintain beside the subversion of all Laws which apparently it carryed along with it Who doth not remember how all the Pulpits in England when time was and generally of all the Reformed Churches abroad sounded the Alarme against the League and Leaguers in France Which yet was not half so mischeivous as this but was at first set on foot quietly without any sedition or insurrection onely for defense of the Ancient Religion always received and established in France yea confirmed with the Kings personal Oath and approbation And though it were afterward continueed and more strictly prosecuted upon occasion of some horrid Actions of murther and tyranny yet Monsieur Villeroy himself who was a wise man and a great Royallist professeth that their aim was not the Extirpation of the King of Navarre but his Reformation and that if they might be assured of his Religion which he had promised he should be instantly assured of their obedience as in the conclusion it clearly appeared every person in France according as the King condiscended to give them satisfaction in that point entirely acknowledging their Allegiance to him And the mishap which befel him afterwards was not in pursuance of the League but upon a private account not to say upon some new provocation given and which no man living justified But as for this Union it runs in a far wilder strain and is for the advancement of a new Religion entirely disavowed by all the States of the Empire in all their publike Acts. How then can it be otherwise then extreamly disloyal and criminous The Duke of Saxony himself though a Protestant Prince disswaded it and advised the Palatine very prudently and like a friend to quit Bohemia and to seek for reconciliation and pardon where as yet he might possibly finde it Beside it opened the Gates of the Empire to the Turk which mischief alone had there been no other going along with it had been sufficient to condemn it But Plessen confesseth in his Letter to Anhalt That it was an Action of the same nature with Holland and what that was we have seen already In brief they took arms against a King Lawfully Elected solemnly Crowned and established in possession by consent of the States It is true when they first went about the work they nominated the Duke of Saxony as Competitor with the Palsgrave for Bohemia but that was meerly craft and a trick of maliciousness to render the Duke suspected with the Emperor They knew he had rejected their offer and Confederacy long before when their Agent the Count Slick sollicited him in their names By this means they put Austria it self the Emperors Patrimonial Country into sedition The people there through correspondence with the Turk and Gabor were so bold as to tell Ferdinand that unless he would grant them Toleration and such Liberty of Conscience as they desired they would joyn with his Enemies And they were in this point as good as their words For in the year 1620. all the upper Austria did really quit their old Lord and submitted unto a new Protector in his stead If the Catholikes of England should attempt the like how would it be censured for sedition and punished severely as it might and yet surely the cases are much Parallel and if there be any advantage it is on our side who desire the exercise of nothing but what was once publike owned for many ages together by all the people of the Nation and legally established before us But nothing makes the Action more offensive and scandalous then that Anhalt and Onoltzbach two such private and inconsiderable persons in relation to the business they dealt in should take upon them insciis Electoribus without the knowledge and consent of the Princes Electors themselves to dispose of the succession of the Empire and in order to effect this more then
they did by private Authority and Faction It shall suffice therefore to send this Master T. M. for his better instruction unto a great Doctor of his own Church Doctor Bilson above mentioned who as we have heard before holdeth it tantum non as an Article of Faith that Princes are not to be deposed which is also the judgement of the greatest Doctor of the English Church and hath been so for these Fifty years and upwards But we demand of them is it good Doctrine in the Reign and case of Queen Elizabeth onely and not so in the Reign and case of Queen Mary It is a position frequently defended in their own Schools Dominium non fundatur in gratiâ and the contrary Doctrine is as generally exploded in Wâ—cleff The difference then of Religion alters not the Authority and power of Jurisdiction And Wyat with his complices rising in Arms without and against royal Authority was a Rebel against Queen Mary as much as Westmorland and the rest with them whom the English Chronicles mention were Rebels in rising against Queen Elizabeth But you will say Queen Mary observed not the Laws of the Realm she abrogated the Statutes of the First of Edward the Sixth which all the Kingdom approved and 't is the profession of good Princes to observe the Laws and to govern by them I answer it is true Legibus se Subjectos esse c. it is a most Christian profession of all Kings to be subject to their own Laws but it would be understood cum grano salis soberly and to refer more to the directive part or power of them then to the corrective or punitive especially in criminal cases if any such should happen lest the remedy should prove worse then the disease the reparation of a private person turn to the ruin of the publike which is contrary to reason the end of government Beside in Princes we may consider their private Acts as I may so cal them of Government which consist in the Executive part of their Office viz. in administring or dealing justice betwixt man and man and in seeing so far as the Law or reason requireth of them that all men under them live well and according to their several duties in these Acts the Prince may be justly supposed to be bound up to the Law and that he ought not to do otherwise then the Law prescribes But who ever accused Queen Mary of breach of Law or misgovernment in this sense Happy had it been for some of her Successors and this whole Nation if they had affected arbitrary Government and Rule no more then she did Secondly we may consider in Princes their more publike Acts which concern all their people in general and consist in the Legislative part of their Office and in these they are Free they are absolute unlimited and bound to nothing but onely to proceed upon such advise as the Constitutions of their several Governments do require that is most commonly and as is best upon advise and the consent of their whole people represented and giving them Counsel in Full Parliament I say in this capacity the Prince is bound to no Law but the Law of Reason and a Good Conscience as to all other respects at liberty to enact or abrogate to make or repeal what Laws he shall think fit and most likely to procure publike good upon such advise given And did not Queen Mary so proceed Did she do any thing but by publike consent advise and supplication of her people in Parliament Beside if Queen Mary should be so subject to her Brothers Laws as not to alter them upon any reason in a legal and due manner why was not Queen Elizabeth so subject to Hers yea why was not King Edward the Sixth himself so subject to the Laws of his Father Why were they altered and that in his Minority too When he was a Childe and understood no more in things of that nature and consequence then a Childe you will say The Religion which Queen Mary brought in was corrupt and impure That of her Brother before and of Queen Elizabeth after her was pure and according to Gods word But this is your assertion onely we say still That you proceed upon a false supposition that presumption and self-conceit rules the greatest part of your rost That thing viz. Whether Queen Maries or Queen Elizabeths Religion were best is the grand question betwixt us And as it is certain that it was never yet by any general and orderly Counsel no not of Protestants determined on your side so we are sure and the world together with your selves know it hath been often legally solemnly determined for us by all sorts of Counsels Provincial National Oecumenical And we pray what reason can be given why the Judgement of Parliament restoring Catholike Religion under Queen Mary with the consent and advise of the chief and best of the whole Clergy of the Nation should not be as good as that which under Queen Elizabeth abolish'd it not onely contrary to the Queens Oath taken at her Coronation but without the advise or consent of so much as any one Bishop or spiritual Prelate of the whole Kingdom who yet in a business of that nature viz. concerning Religion were by all Laws both of * Malach. 2.7 Heb. 13.7.8 17. God and of the Nation principally to be consulted with But let us gratifie our Adversaries as much as may be Let us suppose the worst viz. that Queen Mary had indeed erred in the introduceing of some kinde of superstitions ought she therefore presently to be censured by Ministers or deposed and put down by a Wyat God forbid Solomon himself a wise and a great King did fall into grievous sins and particularly into the grosest of those kinds whereof they presume to censure Queen Mary He had many Hundreds of strange Wives contrary to the Law of Moses and by reason of them fell to Idolatry beyond measure The Queen never took but one Husband and he a Catholike Prince of the same Religion with her self and with the whole Christian world beside except onely some few Provinces which Heresie had lately corrupted Yet neither did the Priest or people take upon them to depose such a King as Solomon They left him to him who is the Supream and most proper Judge of Kings and who in the time appointed by his Divine Providence raised up Jeroboam to chastise him in his Son Yea when Julian himself of a Christian Emperor became Apostate and persecuted the Christians of his time with all maner of vexation and cruelty which either policy of malice could devise neither the people nor the Pastors of the Church though they sharply reproved and inveighed against his proceedings yet none of them took up Arms against him none went about to deprive him either of Dominion or Life And if they thought it not expedient or becoming Christians to do so against a Tyrant acting Tyrannically and onely by the
more honorable with them and more becomming good Christians then the Sword and Fortune of a Conqueror in comanding In which most Christian posture I leave them to proceed Titulus Tertius THe last and greatest tempest against poor English Catholikes was raised by Queen Elizabeth This not onely shook the foundations of the Church which had been so lately repaired by the most Catholike Princess Queen Mary but proceeded so far as humane policy and power could to extirpate the very name and memory of Catholike Religion in England Camd. in Elizab. And this as it were in an instant and without noise For as her own Historian Camdeu reporteth it was done Sine sanguine sudore No man unless perhaps it were Master Secretary Cecil did so much as sweat in the bringing in of New Religion nor was any mans blood I mean at the first beginning drawn about it The Christian world stood amazed at the first news of such a sudden alteration Both because Religion had been so lately and so solemnly restored by Parliament as also because the Queen her self that now was always professed her self so much Catholike during the Reign of her Sister She constantly every day heared Mass saith the same Camden and beside that ad Romanae Religionis normam soepius confiteretur went often to Confession as other Roman Catholikes did Yea saith Sir Francis Ingleseild when she was upon other matters sometimes examined by Commissioners from the Queen she would her self take occasion to complain that the Queen her Sister should see me to have any doubt of her Religion and would thereupon make Protestation and Swear that she was a Catholike The Duke of Feria's Letter to King Philip is yet extant to be seen wherein is certified that the Queen had given him such assurance of her beleefe and in particular concerning the point of Real Presence that for his part he could not beleeve she intended any great Alteration in Religion The same profession also she made to Monsieur Lansack as many Honorable Persons have testified and at her Coronation she was Consecrated in all points according to the Catholike maner and anointed at Mass by the Bishop of Carlile taking the same Oath to maintain Catholike Religion the Church and Liberties thereof as all other her Catholike Predecessors Kings and Queens of England had ever done Concerning the grounds which moved her to make this Alteration so much contrary to the expectation and judgement of Christendom we shall speak in due place This was manifest that the long sickness of Queen Mary gave her great advantage time both to deliberate and draw all platforms into debate to prepare instruments in readiness for all designs and to make choise of the fittest and surest Counsellors such as were most likely to advance her ends Neither did she seem to value her Honor overmuch in order to the bringing about of her chief design For in open Parliament after her intentions for a change began to be discovered she protested that no trouble should arise to the Roman Catholikes Horas Preface of Queen Elizab. for any difference in Religion Which did much abate the opposition which otherwise might probably have been made by the Catholike party and put the Clergy themselves in some hopes of Fair quarter under her Government She knew full well that a Prince alone how Sovereign soever could not establish a new Religions in his Kingdom but that it must be the work of a Parliament to give Authority and Countenance to a business of that nature Therefore to win the Bishops and the rest of the Catholikes in Parliament to silence at least she was content to use policy with them and promise them fair as Monsieur Mauvissieir hath well observed Les memoir de Mons. Mich. Castelnau who was a long time Embassador heer from the French King and curiously noted the passages of those times Add hereunto That when the Act for Supremacy was revived which was always the great Wheel of these Motions whereas by King Henry's Law both Bishops and Barons stood in danger thereof as the examples of Sir Thomas Moor Lord Chancellor of England and Doctor Fisher Bishop of Rochester had shewen in this Parliament the Queen was content to exempt the Lords and Barons absolutely from the Oath as they in King Edward the Sixths time had exempted themselves and to leave the Rigor of it onely upon the Clergy and Commons She also thought good to qualifie the Stile somewhat viz. from Supream Head changing it into Supream Governor which though it altered not the sence yet it abused some into a beleef that the Queen pretended not unto so much in matters Ecclesiastical as the King her Father had done Beside we are to remember that King Henry by pulling he Abbyes had much weakned the power of the Clergy in Parliament having deprived them of the Votes of no less then Five and twenty Abbots who constantly sat in Parliament in the quality of Barons And lastly it is well known The Lower House of Parliament it self as they call it was so calmly spirited in those times that they used not much to oppose what their good Lords of the upper House liked All which things considered and that too many of the Catholikes both Lords and others thinking it better wisdom to purchase their future security by present silence then to expose themselves to trouble and vexation afterward by opposing that which they feared they should not be able to hinder therefore either but faintly resist or quietly absent themselves who can wonder if the whole business were carried with ease upon such promises of the Queen and by the industry and craft of Sinon alias Secretary Cecil who had the chief Management of it in his hands By his advise it was thought fitting that the Noble Earl of Arundel should for a time be abused with some hopes of marrying the Queen who thereupon by the interest which he had in the house of Peers ingrosed into his own hands the Proxies or voices of so many of them who thought good to be absent as when time came served the Queens turn exceedingly well The duke of Norfolk Son in law to Arundel but now a Widower was already exasperated against the Pope because he might not have dispensation to marry his Kins-woman and therefore it was no hard matter to joyn him with Arundel The Queen had also against this time either made or advanced in dignity and consequently in interest certain new Lords whom she knew to be favorers of her design viz. William Lord Parr was made Marquis of Northampton a good Speaker and a Politick man Edward Seymour Son to the late Duke of Sommerset was made Viscount Beauchamp and Earl of Hartford Sir Thomas Howard was made Viscount Bindon Sir Oliver Saint John Lord St. John of Bletso Sir Henry Cary Lord Hunsdon She had also as much weakened the Catholikes party by discharging from the Counsel-Table many of the old Counsellors
such as she thought would oppose themselves viz. the Lord Chancellor Heath Arch-Bishop of York the Lord Paget Lord Privy Seal the Secretary Boxhal Sir Francis Inglefeild and others in whose rooms were placed Sir Nicholas Baecon The new Marquis of Northampton The Earl of Bedford Sir Anthony Cave Sir Francis Knolls Rogers Parry and Secretary Cecil She depoâ—ed many of the old Judges made new Justices of the Peace and lastly concerning the Election of Knights and Burgesses for the Parliament ensuing she took such order by the great diligence and cunning of her Instruments in all the Counties that she wanted not a competent party ready to close with her design in that House Besides this to remove all scruples as much as might be out of the peoples heads and to make them think that the same Religion and Service continued still which was so lately before reestablished by Parliament and that all the alteration made was but onely the turning of the Leiturgy out of Latine into English for their better understanding she provided that in the Common-prayer-book there should be some part of the old frame still upheld some Collects Prayers and Anthemes of the old Missal some of the ancient Ecclesiastical Habits for Divine Service as Copes Surplices c. some Ceremonies as the Sign of the Cross Adoration and Bowing at the name of Jesus The Organs also and ancient manner of Singing their Matins and Even song was retained especially in her own Chappels and in most of the Cathedral and Collegiate Churches of the Kingdom The Title Authority and Jurisdiction of Bishops was also preserved with some considerable Grace and Dignity in the State together with most part of the Revenues of which at that present the Cathedral Churches were seized By which dexterous management of affairs the Common people were instantly luld asleep and complyed to every thing and it became not so hard a matter for the Queen to excuse her self even to those forreign Princes who expected otherwise at her hands As she did particularly to the Secretary D' Assonville who was sent by King Philip out of Flanders to Congratulate her advancement to the Crown By this time the Common-Prayer-Book was framed according to the Queens appointment by certain Commiâ—â—â—oners authorised for that purpose The principal whereof were Doctor Matthew Parker after advanced to the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury having been formerly as some say Chaplain to Her Highness Edmund Grindal afterwards Bishop of London Horn of Winchester Whitehead May Bill and Sir Thomas Smith Dr. of the Civil Law The Liturgy was framed according to the Model of that which the English strangers had used at Franckford in the year 1554. and varied not much from that which Northumberland had caused to be published towards the latter end of King Edward the Sixth By the Nobility that were meerly English Protestants as the Marquis of Northampton Earl of Bedford Lord Gray of Pytgo Secretary Cecil and others it was well approved and the estabishing thereof by Parliament very much urged But those who had tasted of Genevah and were more affected with Calvins Model both disliked and opposed it either not knowing or not regarding the Queens reasons of State in the business Sir William Cecil as we said was now Secretary of State a Politick man and one that knew well enough how much this alteration would advance him his industry carried all before him Howbeit his fortunes were yet but low having onely the Parsonage of Wimbledon and some few Lands about Stamford to subsist upon Therefore in his Letter to the Lord Marquis of Northampton who was his Mecaenâ—s in the year 1560. upon the birht of his son Sir Robert Cecil he desires the Marquis being the Lord Treasurer to move the Queen in his behalf for some means and maintenance for his G. C. as he calld them who were so likely to be famous in England afterward Sir Nicholas Bacon was his Brother in Law and another chief Engin of State a man of somewhat a deeper judgement in the knowledge of the Laws and a more plausible Orator I must not forget in this Catalogue of State-Engins the Lord Robori afterwards famously known by the name of Leicester who to possess the Queens favor solely had already discarded Sir William Pickening though formerly viz. in meaner fortune a favorite and no uncourtly Gentleman Nor yet Sir Nicholas Throgmorton nor Sir Francis Walsingham nor Sir Thomas Smith who were all with the rest prime instruments of this Action intimate Counsellors in the business and posseâ— ng wholly the ears and grace of the Queen sate as chief Pilots at the Storâ— guiding the the course both of Church and Common-wealth at their pleasure All of them at this instant big with hopes of Prefermâ—nt Honor and great Offices which they were sure to loose who held them under Queen Mary Though many men wondered how Master Sâ—cretary Cecil could so easily forget his Beads and his Breviary wherewith with he so exquisitely counterfeited a Catholik in Queen Maries time that Cardinal Poole himself was deceived by him so far as to do him many friendly Offices towards her Majestie which as by the event appeared he did not much deserve Their great and indeed onely pretence or reason for the Change was Reason of State The Queens safety Scilicet This they had all of them but especially Secretary Cecil wrought strongly into her Majesties apprehension Camd. in Elizab. Actum esse de eâ si Pontificiam Authoritatem in quâcunque re agnosceret she was but a lost Princess say they if she acknowledged the Popes authority in any thing For Duo Pontifices Two several Popes already had pronounced her Mothers marriage with the King to be unlawfull and Null It may be thought her Mothers Conscience did likewise pronounce the same sentence in her own Brest otherwise why did she being ready to go to the place of Execution so solemnly entreat and charge the Lady Kingst n Speed Chron. to go to the Princess Mary and upon her knees in her name to ask pardon of her for all the wrongs she had done her protesting that until this were done she could not dye in peace But upon this ground the Statesmen of those times conclude it necessary that the Queen should alter Religion Invest her self with the Sovereignty of all Power and banish that Authority out of the Realm which had presumed to declare her Majestie Illegitimate This Counsel how prosperous soever it proved in the event through Gods permission and how speciously politick soever it might be made to seem by the Arguments and Rhetorick of those men who for their own ends and interests desired a change yet Really it could not but be full oâ— dâ—nger both to thâ— Queen and thâ— Realm but espâ—cially to the Queen who if she had pleasâ—d might have secured her self of her own particular fears by some better way For hereby the Sentence of Excomunication in some sort necessarily issuing upon her
proceedings she was not onely left destitute of all her Allies and Confederates and driven as it were to stand solely upon her own guard against France who was already an Enemy and against Spain who was a friend not very well satisfied But she was forced even at first and at the entrance of her Reign to run upon a Rock which might have Shipwrackt her whole State which was to assist the Rebells in Scotland against their lawful Sovereign under a pretence of expelling the French who were brought in thither by Authority of the Queen onely to maintain the Government established This might have taught her own people a bad lesson at home a man would think though it did not as it proved And being thus engaged in Scotland she was obliged in pursuance of her design to succor the Admiral and those Rebellious Hugonots of France by whose perswasion she invaded Normandy took possession of the Towns of Newhaven Diep and some other places delivered to her by the Vidame of Charteres But the disgrace in ill-defending and loosing of them especially of Newhaven was one of the greatest blemishes that ever the English before that time received upon French ground and far greater then it was Honor to have them delivered upon such occasion into the Queens possession For certainly had either the cause been just or prudently managed they might upon that advantage have easily brought home Calice again or lockt up the Gates of Roan and Paris But they did neither nor brought home any thing but a great Plague after them in most mens judgement a scourge to the Realm for that offence After this upon the like necessity of self-preservation and upon the Reason of State which Polybius prescribeth Vicini nimâ—ùm crescentiâ— potentia quâcunque ex causâ deprimenda By all meanes keep thy Neighbor from growing too great she made no scruple to impede and give obstruction to the affairs of King Philip in the Netherlands who was her Neighbor her Ally her Confederate yea upon more occasions then one and in matters of no small exigence the best friend which she had in the world Yet by reason of those pernicious Counsels concerning Religioâ— which she was fallen upon she was as it were compelled to disown his just interest and profess her self Ungrateful in the face of the world Thereupon Orange and the States are assisted against their lawful Sovereign King Philip. I must not deny but even in doing this she pretended respect unto the Kings interest professing in her Declaration concerning that business Stow. That what she did was to preserve the Ancient Amity and Leagues betwixt the Crown of England and the House of Burgundy and to prevent the loss and utter revolt of those Countries from the Kings obedience which she knew otherwise the States and Orange would deliver up to some other Prince more professedly his Enemy So true it is that which Machiavel observed I suppose much about those times viz. That wise Princes seldom or never want pretences for their Actions What a fair colour is here given to a foul Cause But where is Conscience Christianity and Truth in the mean time The world could see well enough through the Vizard and knew at what mark both the Queen and the States aimed But most Sage sure and worthy of so great a Commander and wise man as himself was is that of Thucydides Nullus Princeps a suis subditis justè puniendis arcendus est c No Prince saith he ought to be hindred from punishing his Subjects according to the Laws and whosoever goeth about to do so by his evil example parem in se legem Statuit c. he makes a Law against himself and inables his own Subjects in like case to seek forreign protection against his jusâ—ice And this the Queen with the whole Nation might have found true by sad experience if that either Henry the Second or Francis the Second Kings of France had lived or that her own Subjects I mean those whom she had not a little injured and alienated by her Misgovernment had not been more loyally respective of her dignity and more inclined to obedience and sufferance for a good cause then many other people in the world were But Divine Providence having decreed for our much unworthiness and many sins to remove the Candlestick of this Nation that is to deprive us of the Light of the true saving Faith and of all publike and free exercise of true Christian Religion and to deliver us up to the darkness and many old delusions of Heresie and to follow our own ways in those things wherein it most of all concerned us to have been ruled by good Authority which is the greatest judgement that can befall a Nation or any people in this woâ—ld all things cooperated to the accomplishment of his just displeasure against us And the Queen with heâ— party were permâ—tted to go on with their work without any interruption Even before her Coronation or that any debate or resolution had been taken in Parliament de novo concerning Religion she being her self but a Sheep of the Flock as Constantine Thedosius and many others her Christian Predecessors in Princely Dignity have not blushed to acknowledge yet presumed to put all the Shepheards of the Kingdom to silence commanding that none of the Bishops or other Prelates should preach till her pleasure was further known And after the Parliament all of them that refused the new revived Oath of Supremacy were deprived of all Honors Dignities and Employments which they had in Church or Common-wealth and committed to several Prisons Of this sort there are reckoned no less then Fourteen Bishops of England all Vertuous and Learned Prelates that were instantly deposed and Ten of Ireland Twelve Deans Fifteen Heads or Masters of Colledges Six Abbots besides inferior dignitaries of the clergy viz. Arch-Deacons and other Priests without number together with Master Shelley Prior of Saint Johns of Jerusalem All these as to their demeanor towards the Queen were blameless there was not the least exception taken against them in that respect The Bishops themselves were all sitting in Parliament at the time of Queen Maries death and acknowledged by diverse Proclamations Queen Elizabeths Right and Title to the Crown The Arch-Bishop of York Doctor Heath was then Chancellor of England and labored by all means possible to do her Majestie service and to settle the Hearts of her people in obedience and loyalty towards her as to their natural and lawful Sovereign especially in that grave Oration which he made to the Nobility and Commons of Parliament upon the first report of Queen Maries death The Bishops joyntly did their Homage and Fealty to her in all dutiful maner and though they were not without some suspicion that she intended to change Religion yet did they practise neither Scotizing nor Genevating towards her Never did they incense the people against her though they were generally Catholik and they might probably have
were men which of all others were thought to care least for Religion Sir Philip Sidney indeed like a Noble and worthy Courtier as he was endeavored by a short Treatise to present unto Her Majesty the unfitness disproportion and inconveniencies of that Match both in relation to Her Person and the whole Realm but he did it privately and with discreet circumspection Stubs like an indiscreet and fiery Zelot taking the question in hand and prosecuting it in a way more likely to incense and corrupt the people then to advise or inform the Queen Cund in Elizab. his hand paid for his presumption And though some of the greatest and wisest of the Councel appeared very earnestly for it as a thing which was likely to unite the whole Kingdom of France unto England and would surely bring along with it the offer of the Netherlands by the Prince of Orange and the States whereby England was like to become a petent Monarchy yet was the whole Body of the Kingdom cast into much distemper and jealousies thereby Some upon partiality and faction others upon distrust of the practises of France some for their own some for their friends sinister ends and ambitions as in this very case I am perswaded men are not a little possessed with the same diseases and humors And if I did not well know the nature of the multitude which is a Beast with many heads and as mad brains I should wonder how they durst oppose the designs of their Sovereign a Prince of so great Experience and Judgement and who hath managed this business from the beginning with such wariness caution and prudence as this great Conjunction cannot portend any other effects then honor comfort and prosperity to the whole Nation Is he not the fittest to judge in his own case And his case being the case of the Commonwealth in general if any private man shall arrogate to himself either more wisdom to amend what is already done or pretend more affection to the State or more providence to foresee and prevent inconveniences certainly he must needs fall into the custody of the Court of Wards till he recover himself But having said this I shall leave the whole matter as a deliberative still and tell you in few words what the occasion was of this Discourse which followeth The occasion of the following Discourse THere met at a Merchants House in London where Merchants for their Table and Hospitality do worthily bear the Bell from all the Merchants in Europe divers persons of quality where being together in a Garden before Dinner T. Aldreds Letter the Pamphlet aforesaid and some strange reports of seditious practises from Amsterdam were read and discoursed upon In the midst of all comes in a fine Chaplain belonging to a great person in England and one that was of the Merchants acquaintance who hearing but a little of the discourse which at that time was the common Table-talk of City and Country with much vehemency he affirmed the Match was likely to breed great troubles and mischief to the Kingdom and that forsooth in regard as well of the increase of Catholikes within the Realm which it would occasion as also in regard of Spain which he ignorantly called an ancient Enemy Hereupon also he took occasion to rail bitterly against the Church of Rome as the Seminary of all the commotions in Europe and the contriver and plotter of all Treasons in England And being resolved to shew his Rhetorick in the Ruff and to omit nothing which might exasperate the company against Catholikes he alledged for examples in thundering language Heywards Reign of Edw. 6. the death of King Edward the Sixth sillily enough that you will say the many conspiracies against Queen Elizabeth buâ— especially that horrible project of the Gun-powder Treason which being undertaken onely by a few desperate Male-contents in justice might rather be buried with the offendors then objected perpetually to innocent men who do generally with great sorrow abhor the very memory of the fact and were publikely acquitted thereof by the King himself in the next Parliament following See the Kings Speech in Parliament Besides this he urged That Princes be disquieted yea endangered many times by Excommunications Bulls and other censures from the Pope by the Catechisms and Doctrines of Jesuites and that the Subjects of England are withdrawn by them from their obedience to their lawful Princes Lastly That they are a people so full of treacheries and disloyalty as no Nation can shew the like He forgat nor you must think to arm himself with the authority of Doctor Morton whose Maxim it was That we may now as well expect a white Aethiopian as a good Subject of that Religion He produced a Book entituled A discovery of Romish Doctrine in the case of Conspiracy and Treason wherein the Author playeth his master-prize against poor Catholikes with equal malice and indiscretion charging them with an infinity of scandalous accusations able to drive men into despair of the Kings Grace towards them and to breed in His Majesties Royal Heart an everlasting distrust of them He urged Parson Whites rash and uncharitable judgement against them That all their Religion was full of such Doctrines as afforded Monsters of conspiracy against the State that they teach men to murther Kings to blow up Parliaments and that since Bells time never was there such a ravenous Idol found as are the Priests of the Seminaries Ormerode also that famous Picture-maker was alledged in this heat who by a great mistake took upon him to condemn the singular and renowned Doctor Allen as affirming That Princes may be slain by their Subjects from the Text Numb 25. At length he concluded all with that Rhetorical flourish of Monsicur Lewis Baily in his Book of The Practice of Piety pag. 783. which he produced with much oftentation as if it alone had been enough to cast the whole Society of the Fathers into a fit of a Quartane Jesuites and Priests saith he are sent to withdraw Subjects from their Allegiance to move Invasion and to kill Kings If they be Saints who be Scythians Who are Cannibals if they Catholikes This conclusion for the art and wit of it could not but deserve a plaudite so the company went to Dinner and after Dinner this fine Chaplain was gone in haste Thereupon some of the company not so much taken with his Rhetorick as were the rest desired a Gentleman then present who well understood the World and was a freeman not obliged to any particular order furthen then as a Son of the Church to deliver his opinion of the Ministers invective which at last upon their much importunity he was perswaded to do in such maner as is here with his leave and particular information represented to you After some pause Claudius accusat Maechos quoth he Catilina Cethegum This is most ridiculous who can endure to hear a Gracchus inveigh against Sedition A man may perceive by the Prologue That
Protestants have set it down as a decree against Catholikes and labor to imprint it as an Eternal scandal in the hearts of the people that Catholike Religion and Doctrine is dangerous to the State an Enemy to Sovereignty and therefore neither allowable nor tolerable in a well governed Monarchy Now this being a matter of so great importance as indeed it ought to be esteemed for querelam Ecclesiae quilibet Catholicus facit suam every good Catholike thinks himself injured when the Church is wronged I will endeavor to sift out the truth and shew you what is therein to be holden as matter of infallible vâ—rity as well to justifie them viz. the Catholikes as to inform my self in a point which I know hath made many good men in England to stagger much And that I may not wander in my discourse nor lead you up and down in a Labyrinth I will shew you first the true state of the Quâ—stion to be argued and the method in which it is most regularly propounded First therefore we demand Whether to be a Catholike that is one who professeth due reverence unto the Church of Rome and to be a true Subject to his Prince and Country be incompatible or no Secondly If they be incompatible whether this incompatibility or repugnancy that is betwixt them be general that is as unto all Principalities and States or particular that is to some one or to some few onely Thirdly Whether it be so originally and ever or onely casually that is at some particular time or upon some particular joyncture of affairs in State Fourthly Whether it be so simpliciter loquendo and as malum in se that is whether the being a Catholike be lookt upon as a thing evil intrinsecally and in its own nature or that it be onely accidentally such or made so by particular Statutes and Laws Lastly whether Lutheranism and Calvinism be not more incompatible with Loyalty more opposit and contradictory thereto and that ab origine To judge rightly betwixt Catholikes and Protestants in this grand charge which we have in hand it is necessary that every one of these particulars be cleerly considered and resolved and so I oblige my self to do at least to endeavor before I end my discourse But yet to pay Master Parson some thing in his own coyn I shall make bold to begin with the last Question first and in lieu of his general or rather hyperbolical accusations of our Doctrine to return him double measure both of Doctrine and Practise in each kinde from his own men That is I will examine and declare obsignatis tabulis and by evidence of fact That the Treasons Factions Seditions Tumults which have so troubled all the Kingdoms of Europe and filled Christendom with blood and calamity for these hundred years last past have sprung not so much from any opinions or practises of Catholikes as from the opinions and practises of Protestants and that the egg of this Cockatrice was not laid at Rome nor Rhemes nor Doway as the World must be made to believe but indeed and very truth at Wittemberg at Smalcald at Genevah And this I shall do not Theologically or like a Divine for I will not arrogate so much to my self but Historically sincerely plainly being one that desires to defend the Loyalty of Religions and Innocent men rather then their Opinions and Doctrines which they are best able to maintain themselves and as a faithful relator of what my self have both known and seen and learned the rest from others of whose authority and credit in this kinde no just doubt can be made Neither shall I affect any rhetorical flourishes or elegancy of stile in this discourse Integrity and Truth which I profess appear always most gracious in their own unborrowed beauties they need no paintings no art no colours Come we then by the Will of God to our intended business Titulus Primus LUTHERANISM OR The Troubles in GERMANY IN the year of our Lord 1514. the whole Church of God enjoyed Peace and her ancient Priviledges all Princes with great devotion were Nursing Fathers and Protectors of her no Storm did trouble her no Schism to break her Unity There was an harmony a good correspondence as to matters of Faith and Religion between the Church of Rome and all the Princes and States of Christendom and till then neither in England nor in any other Country of Europe had there been such a Question ever disputed viz. Whether a Catholike might not be a good Subject In the year 1517. Martin Luther an Augustine Fryer a man of a turbulent spirit learned but never counted any famous Clerk was the first that broke this long and happy Peace Surius in Chron. An. 1517. This man unhappily interposing himself in the business of Indulgences which were sent at that time by Pope Leo the Tenth into Germany although it concerned not him further then he made himself the Proctor and Advocate of his Order yet having once begun to inveigh against the injury done to his fraternity as he conceived for as much as the Preaching or publishing of those Pardons was committed unto the Dominicans and not to them viz. the Augustinians as had been usual before he fell afterwards to tax the abuses and covetousness of the Collectors and then to question even the authority of them by whom those Collectors were nominated and such a levy of money required in that nature This was a popular and plausible Introduction fit to win upon the vulgar who can never well endure the pressure of Contributions especially extraordinary and where the covetousness or scandal of Officers gives any occasion of murmur He quickly therefore found many favorers but much more when he began to exclaim against the ambition of Prelates against the ryot and disorders of Religious men taxing some for Tyranny some for Avarice some for Idleness and Ignorance all for corruption and abuses In this maner he stood in arms and as it were a challenger for some years onely against the defects of the Clergy and without much danger For divers good men at first conceived That he onely intended and sought Reformation of disorders and restoring of Ecclesiastical Discipline punishment of irregularities and amendment of life And this they did not without some cause For Saint Hildegardis had foretold a storm to the Church for their sins Savanarola a Dominican had awakned Italy with predictions of terror and Frier Thomas of Guien prophesied a Vae Vae a scourge and desolation to Bourdeaux an inundation of misery to France and the whole World All these not long before Luthers time Who finding thus Populo placere quas fecisset fabulas that the sport which he had begun did take with the people as novelty is ever welcome to the World and that his actions and designs seemed generally to be applauded that many of the best wits especially such as had been bred in Erasmus his School and were any way touched with his humor were
thousand Duckats and the Imperial Towns partly with Money and partly upon their humble Petitions and Submission made their peace at last with the Emperor And thus by the good Providence of God and happy conduct of Caesar was the Empire preserved in Statu quo prius the Electors Ecclesiastical and other Prelates continued and their Dignities maintained whereas in all probability had the Princes prevailed as they had already by the instigation of Luther and such Preachers swallowed the Revenues extinguished yea wholly buried the Title State and Authority of Bishops in their own Provinces so would they have done all the Empire over Now as Greatness and Innovation seldom want Patrons nor wit to colour their faults so it must be confessed there are some who endeavor to excuse Luther and Lutheranism of the odiousness of this Action yea and the Action it self from the imputation of Rebellion First of all Doctor Bilson affirmeth Differences of Christian Subjects c. That the Lawyers of Germany do in some cases permit resistance to be made against Caesar but he names not one Then he saith The States of Germany are not absolutely subject to the Emperor but onely upon some conditions Secondly Centur. 16. the Divines of Magdeburgh plead That if the Magistrate pass the bounds of his Authority and command things wicked and unlawful he may well be resisted and must not be obeyed Thirdly Sleydan saith Lib. 19. fol. 263. We may resist Caesar with good Conscience when he intends the destruction of Religion and Liberty Lastly Consil Evangel Part. 1. p. 314 Philip Melancthon with great confidence gives Authority to the Inferior Magistrate to alter Religion and overthrow Idolatry So they all conclude the War lawful both by Gods Law and Mans And this indeed is the substance of the Reasons alledged by the Duke and the Landsgrave both when the League was first made at Smalcald and when they first proclaimed War against the Emperor But as it is easie to perceive these Doctors Assertions do all of them suppose certain things which ought first to be proved as for example 1. That Caesar passed the bounds of his Authority for if he did not it is clear they passed theirs 2. That he commanded things wicked and unlawful 3. That he went about to destroy true Religion and their Liberty All these must be proved before it be lawful to take Arms and resist him by their own confession I demand therefore of them this Question When Caesar or the Supream Magistrate commandeth any thing to be done which is not apparently contrary to the Laws of the Empire then in force who shall be Censor who shall Judge whether Caesar passeth the bounds of his Authority and whether the things which he commandeth be impious or no They answer he absolutely sought to destroy their Religion and Liberties But I reply it hath been an old and usual stratagem of Satan to oppose Religion against Religion thereby to bring in Atheism and leave us no Religion Beside making Lutheranism to be the onely true Religion and their Liberties to consist in the free profession of that they take that for granted which Caesar both at Worms and Auspurgh made the greatest Question So they argue not well because they do not proceed ex concessis yea it is manifest that when they did presume to set up a new Religion they passed themselves the bounds of their Authority and the World might judge Caesar a very simple Prince if he should either change his own Religion or tolerate theirs upon the bare credit of Luthers private opinion and spirit or upon the bare Protestation of the Confederates For were they competent Judges against the whole World or can Religion be lawfully and orderly changed by Civil Magistrates onely and when neither a General Councel nor National Councel hath decreed it nor any Imperial Dyet established it may every Elector or Prince frame a new Religion for his own Province by Law without consent of the Emperor and States Give me an Instance shew me a President when any such Innovation was ever made in the Empire without an Imperial Dyet Shew me a Law or some colour of Law by which it might be done or else confess That the Princes taking up Arms against the Emperor was without Justice and their quarrel without lawful ground Beside was it lawful for the Confederates to coyn a new Religion and maintain it by Arms and was it not more lawful for the Emperor to defend the old which was already received and to reform them The Boors took Arms upon the self-same pretences viz. For Religion and Liberty yet the Princes with their own forces and with no less Justice and Honor subdued them Why might not therefore Caesar compel the Confederates unto the same terms as they did the Boors viz. To exercise that Religion which was established at least with à quousque until a legal Reformation could be had and to obey the Laws in force and to keep the Peace of the Commonwealth Doth the degree or dignity of the persons make the cause so different I trow not And for any designs of Caesar upon them under colour of Religion it cannot be made good They were first in the Field the Emperor had not any forces ready a long time after yea they pursued him with their Army and compelled him to fortifie himself P. Avila de bello Germanico So that if mens Councels may be guessed at by their actings it is clear they had rather designs upon him And his favorable dealings with all of them after the Victory do more then refute such a calumny But saith Dr. Bilson The Emperor is not absolutely to be obeyed by the States It is no matter He is to be obeyed in seeing the Laws and Constitutions of the Empire observed and that is enough to justifie his proceedings in the case How far he is absolute and how far the Princes do ow fealty and homage to him and obedience to the Publike Constitutions of the Empire their several Oaths taken at the Coronation of the one and Investitures or Instalments of the other do best shew But I will leave skirmishing and come to the main point It is most certain That Caesar did observe the Law and that the Confederate Princes did violate both the Laws and Liberties of Germany For what Prince soever stands Rectus in Curiâ having the ancient and known Laws of the Kingdom on his side must always be judged to hold a better plea then Subjects who arm themselves against him illegally disorderly and by authority of their own private opinions onely At that time Caesar was bound by Law to extirpate Lutheranism and to maintain the Popes authority in Germany as it was acknowledged in the other parts of Christendom he was bound to maintain Catholike Religion and the Immunities or Rights of the Church so manifestly that even their own Goldastus doth acknowledge it to be the Emperors Oath so to do
and Cantons This Union was made by the States in the year 1578. For seeing on the one hand the fortunate Proceedings of the Duke of Parma and on the other the course of thâ— Male-Contents they enter a perpetual League which was comprized in Twenty Articles In the first whereof Holland Zealand Frize and Gelders joyn contra omnem vim quae sub praetextu c. to maintain one another against all force whatsoever that shall be made upon them in the Kings name or for matter of Religion After this viz. in the year 1579. the Prince of Orange who was the contriver and ringleader of all with those of Antwerp and Gaunt enter the League and subscribe on the Fourteenth of February and it was again confirmed at the Hague the Twentieth of July 1581. The design in all being to expel their Leige Lord the King of Spain and to deprive him of those Dominions as presently after they did publishing an Edict in the name of the States unitâ—d with this title or prescription Que le Roy a' Espague est descheu c. That the King of Spain is fallen from the Dominion of the Low-Countries and injoyning an Oath or form of Abjuration to be taken by all the people of those Countries in these words I W. N. Comme un bon vassal du ' pais Sware anew and binde my self to the Provinces united to be Loyal and Faithful to them and to Aid them against the King of Spain as a true Man of the Country Upon this they break all the Kings Seals pull down his Arms seize and enter upon his Lands Rents Customes and all Hereditaments whatsoever taking them into their own possession and as absolute Lords they Coyn Money in their own names they place and displace Officers of State Banish the Kings Counsellors seize upon Church livings suppress Catholike Religion beseidge Amsterdam and do all other acts that might import Supream and absolute Dominion And all this with so much terror and violence that as 't is reported Raald a Counsellor for Frizeland upon onely hearing of their maner of proceeding and of the new Oath against the King died suddenly therewith as of an Apoplexy The reasons they give why the King had forfeited his title and right to these Countries were these First because he labored to suppress Religion They mean their own which they had newly taken up contrary to the old and which had it not been for the opposition made against it by the Kings Governors in the Provinces had long before this time destroyed the Kings Religion which was legally established and received by the geâ—eral consent approbation and profession of the whole Country Secondly for oppressing that is governing them not according to the Law but by Tyranny Thirdly for abrogating their priviledges and holding them in a condition of bondage and servitude Such a Prince say they we are not bound to obey as a Lawful Magistrate but to â—ject as a Tyrant But this is a Presidâ—nt of vâ—ry dangerous consequâ—nâ—e doubtless For if private Subjects as 〈◊〉 that time they were without difpute may depose their Prince meerly upon general Charges and without having done any one overt Act contrary unto the Laws or the duty of his Office and may make themselves sole Judges in the cause of what is right betwixt the Prince and the People of which they were in no capacity either formal or virtual that is representative more then a Minor part Qui stat videat ne cadat there is no Prince nor State in the world can be secure The Rochellers may plead this as much as the Hollanders and so may any discontented party under a government which they like not as well as they But it shall not be amiss to enquire a little further into this business and lay open to plain view the grounds occasions and consequences thereof so compendiously as we shall be able The original primary and true cause of these troubles was the spring and growth â— heresie which by this time was like a Gangreen spread over the greatest part of Germany and not the least in these Low-Countries where under the shadow of religion especially of abetting and promoting liberty of Conscience as they called it All factions of State and discontentments of Ambitious persons shrowded themselves The peoples natural inclination to Novelty was great and set it much forward yet there wanted not the Concurrence of some Forreigners to blow the Coals of dissention both out of England and France Charls the Fifth Emperor a wise and provident Prince remembringing what a piece of work Luther had lately cut him out in Germany and with what danger difficulty and charge he overcame it intended as well for the quietness of these Provinces as for his own Interest and Honor to prevent as much as he could the Propagation of Martinests and all other Sects whatsoever And to that end finding no other means more proper and fit to be applied unto such a Malady had established the Inquisition among them about the yeer 1550. for the Execution whereof Mary Queen of Hungary then Regent of the Low-Countries procured such Explication and Mitigation of some Circumstances as was judged necessary But after this the Emperor resigning the whole government of these Provinces to his Son King Philip retired himself by a most memorable example voluntarily from the world and consâ—crated the last act of his life entirely to God and devotion King Philip at the first entrance into his government finding how much the Sects increased daily in Flanders notwithstanding the means opposed against them and considering what danger would ensue upon it to the State followed strictly his Fathers advise and in the year 1555. renewed the Commission Instructions and Articles for the said Inquisition But this as it happened through the general contagion and distemper of mindes which Heresie had bred in the people provd onely matter of further discontent to the Inhabitants of the Nether-Lands and did no good They alledge that all Strangers would thereupon be forced to depart the Country and by consequence their Trading would decay which was the Golden Mine and maintenance of those Provinces Thus they complained but indeed their inward grief was the humor of Innovation to which they were much inclined and therefore feared themselves There was another Politick Act of the Kings yet withall of very religious concernment and design which added Fewel to this Fire namely the Erecting of those new Bishopricks at Gaunt Ipres Floren. vand Haer de tumult Belgic Antwerp c. which he intended all the Provinces over And a third viz. the authority and power of the Bishop of Arras whose Cardinals Hat lately procured him by the Kings favor made him the more odious so as the greater his Obligation was to his Holiness or the King their Sovereign so much more it seemed was the malice both of the Nobility and common people incensed against him Lastly they urge their Ancient priviledges
at first was it not the Prince ex mero motu gratiâ speciali out of his meer grace and favor and to gratifie and endear the affections of good Subjects to him Do not all their Charters run in this still Speak they not all this language What ungrateful presumption is it then for people to be so ready and industrious to molest their Sovereign Princes upon the advantage of their own favors What if they be forced to break an Article or some clause of an Article upon urgent cause must it be judged a crime unpardonable what would they have said to Philip Duke of Burgundy and of the Netherlands who upon occasion resumed into his own hand Henric. Berland Histor and by his own Authority all the Priviledges and Immunities of Gaunt yea detained them all his life-time teaching them thereby to acknowledge from whose grace they held them And though the people compelled his Son Charls to restore them upon his coming to Gaunt yet it proved to their cost for they were forced to seek pardon and to cast themselves and their Charters once again at his feet and to stand to mercy The like he did at Machlin but not without great suit made to him and upon such conditions as himself thought good And it is not a little strange to be considered why this Prince of Orange who urgeth so much the Kings Oath and that it ought to be kept yet makes so little conscience to perform his own For he may remember when he was made Governor of Brabant Mich. Baius de Vnion Stat. he took his Oath to maintain Catholike Religion in that Province Hath he performed it When he retired into Holland he professed and protested publikely he would alter nothing nor dispossess the Catholike Clergie of their livings The like he did at Amsterdam and further bound himself there with a Solemn Oath yet he performed none of these but the clean contrary most perfidiously and wickedly as soon as ever he had power in his hands and could attend to do it so that to serve his own turn and for his treacherous end we see how much he could urge another man though his own sovereign to his duty but for his own Religion and bonum publicum gives him a dispensation And it is just according to Calvins Institutions Lib. 4. c. 13. Sect. 21. A man saith he once perfectly illuminated by the light of the Gospel simul omnibus vinculis obediendi legibus Ecclesâ—ae solutus est is ipso facto and at an instant discharged from all bands of obedience either to the Church or the State A blessed Lesson doubtless and wherein he could not but have many Scholars But all this while no particular charge comes in against the King no instance no example is given wherein he did break his Oath when it was poâ—â— ble for him to keep it which through their distempers and undutifulness was become not a little difficult Was it in his exactions that is answered already Was it for bringing in Spaniards upon them Time and necessity forced him to be at that great charge and trouble much against his will to defend the Church to defend the Religion of his Ancestors and of the Country against the insolencies of rude ignorant impious people connived at and countenanced by them lastly to defend the Laws and laudable Customs of the Country and to make them know he was their Prince Was it in the matter of Religion Indeed it is true there is a clause in the Vnion contra omnem vim c. That it should be against all violence whatsoever that should be offered them under pretence of the Kings Authority for matter of Religion It is to be observed at the beginning Orange Horn and Montigny joyned with the people upon pretense onely of opposing the Inquisition upon this ground onely they would seem to countenance Brederode and his complices and for this end only they seem to urge the Religions Vried yea they publish books and make liberal promises to be content if they may but enjoy their own Religion and that they will not prejudice or oppose the Catholikes and with such dissembling as this they drew a great part even of the Catholikes themselves to joyn with them yea Prelates and persons no way suspected for the matter of Religion yet deceived not a little with their pretenses of liberty and of the publike good for which reason the Arch-Duke Matthias was called in and they engaged to assist and defend him with their lives and estates Well! the Religions Vried was granted and thereby as it were a Supersedeas to the Inquisition all violence and severity for matter of Religion ceased What could they desire more All the Provinces and Holland and Zealand among the rest enjoyed what they would have Liberty Religion Et quid non But it is an observation of infallible verity Faction and Heresie are always humble till they get the Sword in their hands when they have it they change their tune as it manifestly appeared by their proceedings For in a short time they of Holland were so far from keeping the Peace of Religion which they had promised that they expel the Catholike Clergy out of all places under their power They seize upon their Lands Sequester their Benefices Imprison their Persons yea molest and prosecute all without exception whose consciences suffer them not to conform to their pretended Synods at Dort in the year 1574. at Middleborough in the year 1581. yea they drown and use many other kindes of cruelty towards men meerly for Religion not enduring so much as to heare of Toleration but onely for their own and some few Anabaptists and Semi-Arrians among them The Religions Vried so impetuously desired or rather demanded when time was for themselves is now quite forgotten and Merchants of Amsterdam Bâ—ewers of Delfâ— Staplers of Dort Seamen of Horn with some few illiterate Ministers joyned with them do now Direct Rule Govern and Judge in all things Comme bon leur semble as it is in one of the Articles touching the Vnion according as to themselves seemeth good No man must gainsay them Truly if the King had proceeded thus with them if he had taken Arms and levyed forces to introduce a new Religion upon them as they did upon the Country I should confess he had much incroached upon their liberties had broken his Oath and incurred their hatred justly The States of Holland Zealand c. have done all this and much more mischief and injurie to the people of those Provinces where they command what therefore do they desire doth not their own example and practises justifie beyond all exception the Kings proceedings Shall they presume to introduce and set up by force of Arms a Religion which before themselves no man ever owned Shall the Consistory at Genevah be so precise as not to permit any kinde of Toleration Shall the pretended Churches of France and Bearn more especially insult
upon and oppress those poor Catholikes which live under their power And must the King of Spain onely be content to sit still and let Sectaries play what pranks they please and commit all outrages in his Dominions without check or controule Who can be so absurd as to judge it a thing reasonable Deos peregrinos ne colunto It was a Law of Romulus against the introducing of new and strange gods Numa Pompilius Socrates and all the wise States-men of the world Heathen no less then Christian have been always careful to provide against Innovation change and corrupting of Religion And shall his Catholike Majestie do nothing for the preserving of Religion sound and entire who both by his own piety and the dignity of his Title is obliged to do so much Shall it be necessary for the peace of their new State to use severity and shall it not be both necessary and just for the preservation of his which is so Ancient so Old For their conscience sake they will bar out Catholikes Shall he not for conscience sake take the same course with Calvinists How strangly do their beginnings and proceedings differ They take up arms against their Sovereign for Liberty of Conscience and yet by those Arms they forbid Liberty of Conscience to their Sovereign For as much as they forbid it to his people their Fellow-subjects they forbid it to Him who pretends to no more in that respect then what every subject he hath ought to enjoy And that his person together with some other of his Subjects is free is not because these men would not but because they cannot bring them in Bondage These States in their Letters to the Emperor 1608. pretend that the Spaniards made use of the Treaty at Colen rather to oppress the Country of the Netherlands then to ease them and therefore to avoid utter ruin Pleraeque Belgicae Provinciae quae in Vnione perstiterant c. Several of the Provinces say they which stood firme to the Vnion did at last renounce or abjure the King and established unto themselves a certain form of Government in the nature of a Free State and have been so acknowledged by other Christian Princes for Thirty years together and more The ground of this Plea is Tyranny exercised after the Treaty at Colen but this Union was made before how then doth it cohere to justifie their doings They say also that the King of Spain and Arch Duke acknowledge them as Free Provinces in quâ—s ipsi nihil juris pretendunt upâ—n whom they pretend to have no Title This is a new Plea I confess But the Reader will observe as it can onely justifie their possession and title for the future so doth it manifestly suppose that their actings before that Declaration was made and by which it was forcibly drawn from their Prince were Illegal Disloyal Rebellious Which the States may do well to remember so often as they use that Plea Nevertheless because by an imperfect disquisition of the matter I would not do harm where I intend onely good I leave this wholly to the Consideration of the Honorable and Learned Chancellor Peckins who can best in a convenient time satisfie the world that this is but a Scar-Crow a Fig-leaf-pretence and a Thunder without a Bolt So that their whole Plea at lest for their past actions resting only upon the stilts of pretended Tyranny Exaction and abrogation of priviledges which have been so often and so manifestly disproved what remains but their condemnation And that we abhor the principles which have lead them into this predicament of disloyalty and sin And yet to leave nothing untouched that can be easily thought on let us once again suppose all their charges viz. Tyranny Exaction breach of Oath c to be true yet must we tell them The Tyranny of a King shall never warrant their usurpation and greater Tyranny Yea suppose he hath lost his right by what Law Order or Priviledge acknowledged do they pretend to have found it Nay what Law of equity or reason have they to Act those things which they confess to be Illegal Unwarrantable yea Tyrannical in him Is it so great an offence for the King to abrogate their priviledges and is it not as great or greater offence for Subjects to usurp his nay to usurp greater then they will acknowledge he ever had May they onely be Parties and Judges in their own case and to the prejudice yea punishment of no less Person then their Prince never was such iniquity heard of Posterity will not beleeve it The Switâ— ers The Amphiâ— yon 's those Cantons of Grecia never heard of such Liberty what is if this be not to confess plainly Regnâ— occupantium esse that Kingdoms go onely by conquâ—st that possession and power are sufficient titles to any Government 'T is true a man may make himself Civis alienae reiâ—ublicae a Subject to another State then that whereof he is native perhaps more ways then one But he can never unmake himself Subject of that Country where he is native do what he can especially staying there and much less of a Subject make himself Sovereign For let him Rebel as who doubts but the Hollanders did yet he remains a Subject still de jure and of right Adde hereunto if the King should forfeit his Earldom of Holland it were not to them he should forfeit it but unto the Emperor to whom it escheates as is cleer both by the Imperial and Municipal Laws Forfeitures do not use to fall to the Tenants but to the Lord of the Fee And 't is evident that Holland was erected into an Earldom not by the Grandsires of Orange nor of any of the Burgers of Amsterdam Delft Dâ—rt c. but by the Emperor Carolus Calvus in the year 863. Qui cum audivit c. Who hearing saith the * Berland Meyer Historian that the County of Hoâ—and being a part of the Emperors demesnes was much infested and spoyled by the Danes at the instant reâ—uest of Pope John principatum ejus c. bestowed the principality thereof upon Theodorick or Thierry If then the Earldom of Holland c. be not in the King of Spain to whom it descended lineally from Theodorick The Emperor may give a second Investiture thereof to whom he please as of a Fief Imperial For to say it should be lapsed into the right of the Province as perhaps particular Estates may do is vain The Emperor takes no notice of their private customes neither can they be prejudicial to a third Person who is so much superior to them and upon whom their very customes do originally depend Beside the Earldom was never vacant there was always an Heir notoriously known either in possession or plea for it They hold it therefore by the sword onely but that is the worst title of all and fitter for those Hoords of Tartarians then for a Common-wealth of Christians Neither Littleton nor Somme rural nor Jus feudale know any such
Tenure A certain Hollander in a third defence which he hath written of the united Provinces calls the King Raptorem Hereticum notorium Spoyler and Notorious Heretick and therefore to be set upon and driven out of his Kingdom by a general League and Vnion of all the forces of all Protestant Princes and States of Christendom But hoc tantum defuit this onely was wanting to advance their Calumnies against His Majestie to the height of impudence Never was the King of Spain called Heretick by man since he deserved the title of Catholike and it could not be done now but by one whose Malice and Heresie together had corrupted his judgement unto madness Nor is it to much better purpose that which they say concerning other Princes and States viz. That they have been acknowledged and treated by forreign Princes as Free States above thirty years That time will not serve for Prescription and if it would Prescription always pleadeth some other Title and possession bonâ fide beside neither of which can they pretend without blushing Neither can the opinion of forreign Princes make their bad claym better it may give some reputation indeed to an usurper but not any Title of right And as in a bad quarrel bravely defended not the cause but the success gains the credit so it is their prosperity and not the justice of their cause which doth them honor Beside it is not true that Princes have so reputed them To Negotiate with them under a quality which they will assume is one thing and really to adjudge that quality as due to them is another They offered the Sovereignty of these Provinces to Queen Elizabeth but she refused them The world doth not think it was out of any Favor to King Philip that she did so but because she knew they offered something more then their own and she was not willing to give her own people such a bad President against her self And when for private ends and some reasons of State she was content for a while to take upon her the charge and title of Protectress of the poor distressed States c. it was observed the business was most earnestly promoted by them who were now as willing to be rid of the * E. Leicester Son as when time was the Marquis of Winchester had been to be rid of the * Duke of Northumberland Camden Father This is upon record that Aversata est Regina the Queen could never endure the offer of the Sovereignty of those Provinces Neither was Sir Noel Caron in her time ever acknowledged Embassador but Agent But to joyn issue with them more neerly let us here what Damhouderius Praxis Crimin c. 132. a famous Lawyer and their own Countryman saith Seditiosi sunt qui moliuntur conspirationem c. Seditious persons saith he are such as hatch or foment Conspiracies against the Governors and Lievtenants of the Provinces that procure unlawful meetings or assemblies of the people or cause any Tumults in the Towns What is this but an Endictment drawn against the States considering their practises not onely against the Person of D' Alva but of Don John himself the Duke of Parma c. their many and tumultuous meetings at Breda Osterweal Saint Trudens their encouraging yea incensing the Genses throughout all the Provinces lastly with their defence and holding of Harlem Alemar Leyden and other places by force of Arms Again Chap. 82. he teacheth that to make a War just there must be first a just cause Second honest intention Third Authority of the Prince or Supream Magistrate Sine quâ without which saith he 't is Treason to make War That same Sine quâ of his might make the States tremble if they reflect upon it For in all their Wars they neither had good cause nor good colour Their Religion and Liberties were all secured to them by the pacification at Gaunt by the perpetual Edict by the Articles of the Treaty of Colen which were all quietly enjoyed without disturbance by such of the Provinces as would conform to them Their Sovereign was known to be His Catholike Majestie and for their good intention as no man could judge of it but by their actions so it appeared cleerly to be onely to sow dissention among the people and through factions and discord to arm them by degrees against the supream Magistrate under colour of Religion And the Prince of Orange most disloyal of all other because being a person of Honor and so highly entrusted by the King he betrayed that great trust reposed in him and made a War by his own Authority and that of his faction against the King Although he had neither Office nor any kinde of Command in the Low-Countries but what he had under the Wings of the Eagle and the Authority of the Lyon All his Belgick Lands he held in Fee of the Duke of Burgundy as his Leige-Lord he did Homage and Fealty for them and knew that a Sovereign gives Law as well as offices to his Subjects Besides Claudius le Brun Process Crimin another famous Lawyer addeth this viz. That whosoever surprizeth Towns Castles Forts without order of his Sovereign as the Prince caused Lumay to do in Holland and as Voorst and Barland did Flushing by which the peace of the Country is broken or who attempteth against the life of his Sovereigns Lievtenant it is Treason And these are judgements which all Europe do consent in decrees of reason and principles of Government which must not be called in question if the States of Holland themselves do permitt them to be disputed they must never expect Peace Order or any setled obedience in their Country So that by Law 't is cleer in what case the States do stand for thus breaking the peace of Christendom in those times and being cause of the effusion of so much Christian blood as hath been shed in that quarrel Now concerning any liberty which the Gospel Holy Scriptures or any principles of true Religion may be supposed to give them to use such proceedings against the Sovereign Prince I shall not enter into any Theological dispute with them as being beside my purpose which is onely to shew matter of opinion and matter of Fact in this controversie of obedience due to the Supream Civil Magistrate And therefore because I write onely to English men I shall content my self onely with the judgement of Doctor Bilson against them He was a great Divine and a great Prelate of the Church of England and chosen on purpose to write on this Argument by the greatest Statesman of that time and he wrote cum privilegio of the State and with the general approbation of the English Church Shall a King Christian Subject c. saith he be deposed if he break his promise and Oath at Coronation in any of the Covenants and Points which he promiseth He answers in the Margin No. The breach of Covenants is not deprivation and gives this reason
violence of his own exorbitant passions without any order or colour of Law and as no just Prince ought to govern how much less would they have thought it lawful and how little would they approve it to be done against such Princes as govern legally and do nothing concerning Religion or otherwise but according as the Laws and and publike Constitutions of their several Kingdoms do direct and inable them to do He that proclaymed the Prerogative of Kings in these terms Vos Estis Dii I have said Yee are Gods surely intended to teach the world rather a lesson of obedience then rebellion And there is no Prince or State in the world Let them countenance what Sect or Profession of Religion soever they please but shall finde it at one time or another a necessary Bulwark for them to retreat unto against the inundations of popular fury Who doth deny but that it is necessary that the governments of all Princes whatsoever should be regulated and moderated by Laws and that all persons in Authority do observe all rules whatsoever that are proper for them or prescribed to them by those to whom that power belongeth We pretend not to enhaunce the Authority of Princes so far as to exempt them from the rule of Law or to make them Arbitrary in their government but this we say Vos Esi is Dii in relation unto Princes and all Persons established in Supream Authority justly that is by the will of Divine Providence and consent of the people is a great exemption of them from any popular Cognizance For what does it intimate but that * Egodixi Allmighty God himself hath made them Gods unto the people that is to say persons of Knowledge Experience Foresight Care Providence and other abilities Intellectual which are the natural and genuine principles of government competent and sufficient for the government of people who are not otherwise generally speaking Et pro majori parte able to govern themselves in civil society and for their preservation in peace and quietness which is the end of Government We think it is most proper for God onely to say Transferam Regna de gente in gentem Revolutions of Governments and Translating of one Kingdom to another are the Extraordinary Dispensations of Divine Providence and for reasons onely known unto his supream and secret wisdom Which although they be acted that is brought to pass by the hands of men yea through their infirmities and many times blamable passions as experience often sheweth and as in the case of King Rehoboam the Son of Solomon 1 Reg. 12.16 may seem plain yet are not the common people licensed hereby to run upon any irregular designs of their own head and to renounce their Governors headily and hastily of themselves for every lght greivance and misgovernment that may seem to afflict them To remove Tyrants and oppression from a people is the work of Divine Mercy as it is of his justice to permit them to oppress and from him only must they expect deliverance abiding in the mean while with patience until his Divine hand shall appear leading them to such means as they may with justice and good order use to the procuring of their liberty The Second Part. JERUSALEM OR The Obedience Loyalty and Conformity OF CATHOLIKES unto Publike Order HItherto we have insisted onely upon the Doctrines and practises of those who call themselves Reformed Churches or Protestants in the charge of Rebellion and Tumult against the Civil Magistrate by which how tolerable and quiet they are in any Kingdom or State whose Religion is not framed according to their Mode the indifferent Reader will judge It remaineth now that we make good the contrary concerning our selves and shew that those vertues which we pretend to be the true and proper Characters of our Religion viz. Humility Devotion Obedience Order Patience c. are more generally and more constantly exercised by Catholikes in times of Tryal then by any other Sect or Sort of people whatsoever This we intend to do but not so much Theoretically or by way of any long and speculative discourse as Practically Historically and by way of instance shewing what the behavior and practise of Catholikes have been in this case upon occasions given Neither shall we range far abroad into the world because that would be less pertinent to our main purpose which is onely to justifie our selves in this point so far as reason and truth will give us leave and enlarge our discourse beyond its intended bounds But we shall content our selves onely with domestick examples and that experience which the Catholikes of this Nation have given of themselves from time to time in this kinde What kinde of people they were anciently in this Land in the time of King Lucius and the Brittons I shall not need to relate but refer you to the Ecclesiasticall Histories of those times the rather because the Centurists of Magdeburgh and Master Fox in his Acts and Monuments will have these Catholikes to be Protestants and of their Church which though it be very false yet I may not ingage for the cleering of that point now Nor shall I insist any longer upon those times of the Saxons after they were converted to Christianity to shew their vertues and singular devotion towards God and how happily by means thereof the Church and Common-wealth did grow up together unto that perfection of Spiritual and Temporal glory which they injoyed under that Blessed Prince and Saint King Edward the Confessor I shall not tell you how highly the good Prelates of the Church were then reverenced by the people nor how much their holy Counsels and Authority did conduce to the happy government of the State It sufficeth Lamb. Archaion Camden Spelm. Concil that many old Saxon Laws and other Monuments yet upon record Venerable Bede and the Stories of those times with other Modern Authors are witnesses of it beyond all exception From King Edward the Confessor downwards to King Henry the Eighth there is no man of judgement will affirm or thinketh that any other Religion was known in England but the Roman-Catholike that is the same that had been long before planted here by Saint Austin and those Good men his followers who were sent hither to convert the English Saxons by Saint Gregory the Great Bishop of Rome for which charity towards our Nation Doctor Whitaker giveth him thanks and professeth it was a great Benefit and for ever most gratefully to be remembred In all which time although the Clergy made Canons and managed all things pertaining to Religion by an Authority of their own that is to say given them by God and derived to them from an other origin then that of the State or Supream Magistrate Temporal yet never did the Kings of this Realm finde them generally otherwise then obedient unto their Government and ready to serve them in such capacity as the Laws and duties of their function permitted and to contribute their
Honor and Strength of the Nation Titulus Secundus HItherto Schisme and Sacriledge annexed to it chiefly reigned but the second plague was the utter ruin and extinction of Religion For by abuse of the name and authority of King Edward the very Church it self was entirely subverted Religion absolutely changed Heresie introduced and established in the full open and publike profession thereof And we might say the craft and malice of the Devil whose work it is to corrupt true Religion confound States herein most perfectly appeared For though indeed the way to Heresie and all publike disorder were sufficiently levelled and made plain by King Henry the Eighth who onely by reason of his greatness and imperious cruelty was fit to begin such a work yet Religion it self was suffered to stand a while longer at least in the general and more visible parts of it he knowing well that all could not be effected at once and that it was necessary for him to seduce States as he doth souls gradatìm by degrees opportunity and succession of time And being also confident that if those forts of Piety and true Christian-Catholike Devoâ—â—on that is the Religious Houses were once-razed the Church in England brought under a Lay head and by consequence the sheep made Governors of their Shepherds he should easily upon a second attempt there and by some other hand overthrow Religion it self King Henry at his death had appointed by will sixteen Executors who during the minority of his Son King Edward should be as it were his Guardians and Counsellors for the better governing of the Realm Among these one who made himself afterward Principal was the Lord Edward Seymour Earl of Hartford who being the Kings Uncle by the Mother-side procured himself in a short time to be made Protector and by that means gat as he thought a dispensation from his Joynt Executorship with the others and demeaned himself now in all things concerning the Affaires of the Realm as their Superior A thing which King Henry least of all intended rather he had provided with as much caution as was possible against the encroaching of any one upon the rest under any title or pretence soever But this was the way to bring about some furthâ—â— designes intended by that Party which advanced the Protector to that dignity and which the other and more honest part of the Councel did not either so providently foresee or so faithfully resist as they ought to have done One of the first things which the Protector set on foot after the Protectorship was secured to him was Innovation of Religion abolishing the Old Catholike and introducing a New under the title of Reformation Not so much out of any great preciseness that was ever observed in him or devotion that he was thought to have more one way then another but because he was thirsty and desired to drink to the bottom of the Cup which in King Harries time it seems he had but onely tasted There was yet some Game in his eye which he intend-to bring into Toyls viz. some few remains of Church-Lands Collegiate-Lands and Hospitals which he could not compass or draw into possession by any Engine better then that pretence of reforming Religion Cranmer that unworthy Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was his Right Hand and chief Assistant in the work although but a few months before he was of King Harries Religion yea a Patron and Prosecutor of the Six Articles To this end viz. the more to amuze the people and as they thought to give some strength and countenance to what they meant to set up a couple of strangers Religious men indeed by profession but such as were long since run from their Orders that is Peter Martyr and Bucer must be sent for as far as Germany and placed in the Divinity Chairs at Cambridge and Oxford That the world might see how contrary not onely the Pastors of the Church and Clergy but even all the learned men in both the Universities and of the whole Kingdom generally were to his proceedings By these two Apostate Friers together with Cranmer Ridley Latimer and some others was a new Liturgie framed and the old abolished together with that Religion which had been so many hundreds of years observed in this Nation with great happiness and honour The Protector though powerful of himself by abuse and pretence of the Kings name in all things which he did although the King were but a Child of nine years old was yet well seconded by the Duke of Northumberland and by the Admiral his onely Brother by the Marquis of Northampton c. all of them persons seemingly at least much inclined to Reformation and by them he overbore all the rest that opposed him or were any thing contrary to his designs As there were many both eminent and wise men and equally intrusted in the publike affairs with himself could things have been carried rightly In particular the Lord Privy Seal the Lord St. John of Basing Bishop Tonstall Sir Anthony Brown and that wise Secretary Sir William Paget but most especially the Noble Chancellor the Lord Wriothsley a man of singular experience knowledge prudence and who deserveth to be a Pattern to his Posterity far to be preferred before any new Guides But being made Earl of Southampton though it neither won him to the Faction nor contented nor secured him yet he stood thâ— more quiet and made no great opposition to their doings All things now grew to confusion there remained no face nor scarce the name of Catholike Church in England and though there were great multitudes of men well affected to the old Religion and discontented that the Church should be thus driven into the Wilderness and forced to lurk in Corners Yet did they shew loyalty obedience and love to the publike Peace notwithstanding They took up no Arms they raised no Rebellion not so much as against the shadow of a King or the usurper of his Royal name The Protector in the mean time goeth on with his work which is principally to enrich himself with the Remains of the Church having long before as 't is said tasted the sweetness of such Morsels in the Priory of Aumesbury He now seizeth two Bishops houses in the Strand and of them buildeth Sommerset house which as the world saw quickly reverted and slipt out of his hands After this he procureth an Act to be made whereby all Colledges remaining all Chantries Free Chappels and Fraternities were suppressed and given to the King And how greedily he entered into the Bishop of Bath and Wells his Houses and Manors that Church will never be able to forget Notwithstanding that Bishop Bourn afterward by his industry recovered something but nothing to the spoiles and wast which was made Nor was he satisfied with this For shortly after contrary to all Law to King Henries will and against his own Covenants those I mean which he entred to his Advancers when they made him Protector He committed the Lord Chancellor
The ones Ambition The others Avarice destroying him Yet of the two the calamity of the Protector must in all humane judgement seem most disastrous For 't is certain through his own weakness and the importune instigations of his Wife he was compelled to serve the designs of his greatest Adversary in the world by putting his own brother to death And after that living to see Bologne lost and the Crown through his Misgovernment engaged in many debts wants and trouble he last of all ended his days fatally and without any shew of repentance for those sins which brought him to that end Whereas in this respect Northumberland was far more happy For having in all humble and penitent maner acknowledged his offences to the Bishop of Worcester Doctor Heath his Ghostly Father and thereby reconciled himself to God and to the Communion of his Church at the place of Execution not out of design or hopes of life as some would malitiously asperse the action but willingly freely of his own accord and out of conscience as himself protesteth at his death he made another most Christian and publike acknowledgment of his Faults especially those which concerned Heresie Sacriledge and Treason in all which he confessed himself to be most guilty And thereupon used much and vehement exhortation to the people to beware of those Preachers of New Doctrine who had fâ— ed the Kingdom with so many false Opinions and much trouble Assuring them plainly and openly concerning himself that whatsoever he had professed or done in that kinde proceeded wholly from Covetousness Ambition and other evil Motives not worthy to be named and not from any perswasion of Judgment or Conscience which he ever had that way And therefore adminished them that they should willingly return to the Communion of Gods Church and keep themselves constant in the Catholike Faith and true Religion Which for Conscience sake saith he I onely tell you and that I may thereby in some sort acquit me of my duty and save my soul and not for any humane or temporal motive expectation or hope whatsoever And so died The Oration it self out of which this is extracted may be seen at large in Schardus Sim. Schard Memor Histor in Maximil 2. a Protestant chronicler of note in his historical collections and elsewhere I suppose without much difficulty Thus lived and thus died as we have said the two grand adversaries of Gods Church and subverters of Catholike Religion in England after so many disorders committed as God was pleased to suffer by their power and procurement and that they had sufficiently scourged and afflicted those whose sins well deserved such punishment they were both of them taken away by the hand of Justice and met with their deserts Temporally and things were restored to some better pass But what did the Catholikes all this while How did they behave themselves What Rebellions did they raise what commotions or tumults of the people did they procure I mean the more civil religious and ingenuous amongst them 'T is true some Risings there were in Devonshire and the Western parts of the rude multitude exasperated especially upon some temporal grievances oppressions and wants which followed the misgovernment of those times Religion was either not at all or least of all pretended by them They were vexed indeed to see the encroachments which the Protector and others made dayly upon the Kings and Peoples Interest They were sensible of the Scarcity and Dearth of all kinde of necessary commodities for life which came suddenly upon them and was far greater then it used to be They could not endure well to be abridged by Inclosures of some other Liberties which they pretended to In brief They were sensible of all such inconveniences in the Government of the State as concerned the Outward Man but for Religion further then it served to ease their Spleen that is to clamor to asperse and rail upon those whom they conceived the Authors of their other and more resented grievances I conceive they minded it not and that there is scarce any good ground why a man should think them in that respect more Catholikes then Protestants And if a Priest or some Ecclesiastical person were found amongst them as it were strange if there should be none considering how many there were then in the kingdom absolutely destitute and discontented yet certainly they were not many nor in any other quality considerable Whereas 't is certain that Kets camp in Norfolk a business of far greater consequence and difficulty were all of them such as were fallen with the State from the profession of Catholike Religion and become Protestants And this I would generally premise desiring the Reader to observe it that where I affirm of Catholikes that they did not conspire against their Princes nor raise any tumults in the kingdom for matter of Religion I mean such only as were Catholikes indeed and stood firm in their Holy Recusancy not complying in any sortwith those alterations which Henry the 8th Edward the 6th or Queen Elizabeth in their several times procured to be made contrary to the integrity of Christian Religion For such as complied were not to be counted Catholikes any longer but Heretikes Schismaticks Hypocrites c. And for such people having corrupted their faith to God I would not be taken to apologize in any other point of duty For 't is very possible they might still retain some notions of Catholike Religion in their minds which afterward and upon other occasions running into terms of disloyalty they might pretend as matter of complaint against their Prince though themselves were neither Catholike nor That nor any other matter purely Spiritual the true original cause of their Disorder but onely those Temporal Grievances by which they smarted as is abovesaid and which they saw well enough to procceed either wholly or in part from the several alterations made There were the like in Lincolnshire which our English Chronicles pass not over in silence But it sufficeth that for the generality of Catholikes I mean still those of more ingenuous civil and better quality notwithstanding so great and violent provocations as were used towards them their patience and submissive demeanor towards the State and civil Government was most exemplary to the World Neither Prelates nor Priests nor Lay-people making any resistance against those unworthy men who so much oppressed them under the Kings usurped Authority and Name making such havock in the Church and spoil of all things consecrate to the Service of God and exercise of their True Ancient Christian-Catholike Religion as this Nation never saw the like since it had â—he happiness to be called Christian It seemed they had been bred in a better School of Vertue then that which Calvin opened at Genevah and had learnt to bear the cross of their Saviour that is to say these temporal afflictions calamities and injuries with more Patience and that the glory of Martyrdom in sufferance was accounted far
done it to her no little trouble No they never attempted any kinde or any shew of violent resistance at all either by Domestick or Forreign help but always from first to last most submissively behaved themselves towards her tendring her safety and the Peace of the Realm far above their own Lives Liberties and Estates 'T is true it was once debated among them whither they ought not to proceed to Excommunication against her both for the preservation of Catholikes and discharge of their Office Yet considering the great trouble and inconveniences that might arise thereby both to her Majestie and the State in case the people should fall into any disorders thereupon or take Arms in defence of Religion They concluded notwithstanding her case and proceedings were very much liable to censure yet for their parts to leave her to Gods Judgement and referred the whole business to his Holiness And herein also the Favor and Interest of King Philip as they had always done did stand her in no small stead For he knowing the practises of France upon this occasion and how much they labored at Rome that sentence of Excommunication might pass against Queen Elizabeth onely out of design and hoping to invest themselves of England thereupon under the Title and pretensions of Queen Mary of Scotland who was the next Heir and at that time married to their King Was the more willing to hinder it least by this means England and Ireland both together with Scotland should come to be Incorporate as it were into the Crown of France and so become an enemy too potent for him to deal with out of which respect also even in Queen Maries time more then once he had kept of proceedings against her which otherwise would have concerned her very neerly Therefore so long as there was any hope that the Queen might be capable of better Counsels he ceased not by his Ministers to do all good Offices here betwixt the Queen and the Clergy and at Rome hindered the passing of the censures for no small time notwithstanding all the indeavors and instances thereunto made by the French But the Prelates all this while as I said chose rather a Durate then Armate ever professing with their mouths and making it good no less with their examples and practises that Preces and Lachrimae indeed Prayers and Tears were the onely weapons which they had to fight against the Queen Though the world knows how little these prevailed with her whose severity towards them continued in the same extremity from first to last not relenting nor affording the least remission in any degree of Liberty or Estate unto their dying day Doctor Scot Bishop of Chester died at Lovain in Exile Goldwel of Asaph died at Rome Pate Bishop of Worcester was indeed at the Councel of Trent and subscribed there for the Clergy of England but never returned Doctor Oglethorpe Bishop of Carlile who had Crowned the Queen was yet deprived with the rest dying suddenly and very shortly after so did also Doctor Tonstal that Learned and Famous Prelate Bishop of Durham while he was Prisoner at Lambeth Yet not before he had personally given the Queen a sound and Godly Admonition concerning her strange proceedings with that liberty and freedom of zeal which became so venerable a Prelate and true Pastor of Gods Church as he was and as some have said Godfather to the Queen Bourn Bishop of Bath and Wells was prisoner to Cary Dean of the Chappel and there dyed Doctor Thirlby Bishop of Ely was first committed to the Tower afterwards He and Secretary Boxhal were sent to Lambeth and there ended their days Bishop Bonner of London Watson of Lincoln with the Abbot of Westminster Fecknam died all prisoners and as some say in the Marshalsey Prior Shelly was banished and died in Exile This was the the very Sad yet as by their Patience Submission and Sufferance appeared very Christian Catastrophe of so many grave religious and good Prelates of England chief Pastors of the Church of God in our nation Thus was a third and the most venerable State of the Realm who like the Cedars of Liâ—â—anus ever since King Etheldreds time for so many years together had stood flourishing in great Dignity and Power in this Land on a sudden cast down disgraced put in prison or banished the Realm The chief and immediate cause of which hard procedings against them was the refusing the Oath of Supremacy for no other crime no other fault could be charged upon them This indeed they refused as a thing which concerned their Conscience very much And although perhaps some of the Prelates now living had either for fear or upon surprizal in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth when it was first enacted given more consent or connivence to it then became Prelates of the Church to do yet they had now better considered themselves and resolved to be constant not onely to the Doctrine of Catholike Faith in that point but also to the judgement of the whole Kingdom which so lately in full Parliament had desired the Abrogation of that Law and acknowledged the Supremacy of Ecclesiastical Authority to be where Christ placed it viz. in the Sea Apostolike Nor did the English Prelates refusing to acknowledge the Queen Head of the Church any thing more then what the Protestants themselves at least no mean ones among them would likewise do For 't is manifest that setting aside some few English at home they do generally abroad dislike the Princes Supremacy in Ecclesiastical causes as much as any Not to mention Gilby who in his Book called Admonitio ad Anglos calls King Henry the Eighth reproachfully Monstrum Libidinosum Aprum qui Christi locum invasit c. A libidinous Monster a Wilde Bore broken into Christs Vineyard and making himself Head of the Church which belongs onely to Christ Calvin himself in his Commentary upon O see is very angry at those who attribute so much to Secular Princes as to give them such absolute power in the affairs of Religion and in plain terms confesseth Qui initio tantoperè extulerunt Henricum Regem Angliae certè fuerunt inconsiderati homines c. They saith he who first advanced the Authority of King Henry of England to such a height did not well consider what they did when they gave him that Supream Power in all Causes it was a matter which always greeved me very much saith he For indeed they did no less then blaspheme when they called him Supream Head of the Church under Christ Sir Thomas Moor Bishop Fisher Abbot Whiteing of Glastenbury and those many other Holy Abbots and Religious men of all sorts who suffeâ—ed in the case of Supremacy under Henry the Eighth never said more And Luther himself saith no less but more scurrilously as his humor was Quid ad nos Mandatum Electoris Saxoniae What hath the Prince Elector of Saxony to do to command me Let him look to his Sword and see
the Instruction and training up of yong Scholars viz. of the Catholike Nobility Gentry and others of our Nation in the studies of Learning Vertue and all kinde of honest and christian Education which as the case stood they could not possibly have in their own Country without Ship-wracking of their consciences and great peril of their souls This I say was the first and onely design of the Seminaries viz. to be a Nursery of young and tender plants as should be committed to them to be fitted for the Service of God and the leading of a true Christian Vertuous life afterward and not to be Seedplots or Forges of Treason and seditious practises against their Country as their Adversaries cease not to accuse them That 's a calumny black and palpable as shall appear more hereafter At present I shall onely take notice of what that great Protonotary of England brings in charge against them in his Book called Justitia Britannica which are three things First That they are a company of base fugitive persons Secondly that they corrupt the Land with false Doctrine and Thirdly That they practise with forreign States to disturb the Kingdom raise rebellion and withdraw Subjects from their obedience As touching the First I am very well assured that there be Gentlemen of our Nation at Doway both in the Colledge and Monasteries of as good Families as well Bred and as Eminent Scholars as any I have known of all these sorts in the Universities of England wherein I am not altogether a stranger I will not make Comparisons for that were but to make them more odious neither am I willing to detract any thing from the honor of our English Academies which I am bound to maintain It must be confessed there be many excellent wits and men of great learning bred in them yet this I may truly say That those beyond Sea are of no base quality neither is their education in those places such as should render them liable to that Character in time to come Yea rather they are so orderly governed and their times of study devotion exercise both Scholastical and Spiritual recreation yea even of their most necessary repast and rest are all so exactly measured out to them all occasions of idleness excess and ill company so prudently and carefully prevented that it is indeed no wonder they appear so civil so devout so religious temperate sober and well governed in all outward deportment as through the grace of God they do They are as I said by their Superiors strictly kept to their tasks yet rather won then forced unto good They are bridled with a hard bit but it is carried with such a gentle hand as it doth not pinch but guide them So that as their studies blessed be God are not altogether unhappy so neither is their life unpleasant but sweet agreable to vertuous mindes and full of the Noblest contents And that they should be counted Fugitives is most injurious For do they live there as Outlaws in a forreign Province have they fled for any crime doth Justice enquire after them or wait for them in their own Country what Felonies what Treasons have driven them thence but such as a very few years before were not onely in the same place where they are now so hardly censured but in all places of Christendom and by all people of sound judgement counted the greatest vertues Again they live not there out of any factiousness of spirit or ill affection towards his Majestie or the State of England but for conscience sake onely and to avoid the severity of Laws enacted here against Catholikes and the profession of Catholike Religion It is necessity that compels them to take this course In England Catholikes have no Churches wherein to serve God publickly nor liberty to serve him privately any where else The Sacraments are never or but very seldom Administred to them in comparison of what they should be They can have no priviledge or benefit of the Universities for education and study without Oaths going to Church and hearing and doing many other things contrary to a good conscience Beside all this did not Barty Knolls and Hales did not Jewel Horn Cox Pilkington Poynet and many others in Queen Maries time take the same course for conscience as they pretended They would not willingly have been called Fugitives when they were abroad Why then should those Gentlemen at Doway Saint Omars and elsewhere Exil'd as it were at present from their native Country upon the same common pretence and reason viz. reason of conscience be called Fugitives or stigmatized with any such Characters of ignominy Let those Laws be repealed first which threaten present death to them upon their return and which were all procured against them unduly and by misprizion viz. of their supposed practisings against the State which as they complain were never proved nor are true Let it be permitted to them to enjoy Liberty of Conscience and to serve God as all good Catholikes and Christians ought to do without molestation and danger to their persons prejudice to their estates further then they shall give just offence to the State and the world would quickly see where their truest affections lay Neither Doway nor St. Omars nor Rhemes nor Rome it self would hold them from returning with all thankfulness and speed to express their humblest obedience to his Majestie and fidelity to their native Country And as for their Parents Kinsfolks and Friends from whom they are now unhappily separated and from many of them perhaps against their wills they should plainly finde that natural affection was not extinguished in them neither would kindness creep where it might safely go The Second objection is They corrupt the Land with false Doctrine This objection supposeth that Calvinism and the present Religion by Law established in England is the true which England it self denied but a few years since and the whole Christian world doth at this day I do not except the Protesttants themselves For there is not any one of their pretended Churches abroad that agreeth with this present Church of England in all points of Doctrine and Discipline established But to wave that quâ—stion at present as no part of my undertaking it must be considered there are learned and vertuous men on both sides one whereof will not it seems vaile Bonnet to the other in point of understanding the Scriptures How then should the diffâ—râ—nce be decided even in reason but by some Authority distinct from them both yet indifferent and superior to both which can be no other but the judgement and tradition of the Catholike Church precedent unto both Besides this the Bishops in the first Parliament offered to defend their Religion by disputation which the Protestants would not accept but upon an unequal condition that is as Master Camden himself reporteth Nisi Baconus in studiis Theologicis parùm Versatus c. Vnless Sir Nicholas Bacon might be President and Moderator of the business
secular Priests attainted or convinced of Actual Treason against her Majestie viz. Ballard for knowing and yet concealing the attempts of Babington in the business of the Queen of Scots and old Parson Plomtree of the North who said Mass once at a rising in those parts And yet how greevously are they charged with such crimes all along the Queens Reign And how much was the people incensed against them upon that perswasion What Sermons Proclamations Lawes were made in Thunder and Lightening and Blood against these poor men Souldiers of our Saviour Christ and fighting onely with Spiritual Arms under his Banner The Cross in that part of the Catholike Church which is Militant in England What calamities afflictions miseries have they not endured by persecution hereupon The onely Colledges of Rhemes and Doway beside other Religious Orders from other places have sent out into our Lords Harvest no less then One hundred persons who have all suffered for Things purely Spiritual that is either for being Priests or for doing the Office of Priesthood viz. Saying Mass Reconciling of Sinners unto God c. In the year 25. of Queen Elizabeth it was made Felony to harbor a Priest and to be a Priest Treason And the Act looked so cruelly back to primo Elizab. that whosoever was made Priest since that time might very easily be drawn within compass of the charge The Law was made upon occasion of those Treasons of Parry Francis Throgmorton Anthony Babington and his complices as also upon occasion of F. Campian and those Priests arraigned with him For a general apprehension was taken that these had combined with some forreign Princes and other persons of power within England to restore Religion and deliver the Queen of Scots out of prison which was a business then fresh in memory Hereupon the Priests in England frame a supplication by common consent and finde means to present the same to the Queen at Greenwich by the hands of Master Shelley Wherein after they have first condemned and renounced the practises of Parry c. They profess and declare their own judgement in these words First we utterly deny that the Pope hath power to command or give License to any man to consent unto Mortal sin or to commit or intend to commit any thing contrary to the Law of God Secondly whatsoever person he be that maintaineth such opinion we renounce him and his opinion as devilish and abominable Thirdly we protest before God That all Priests who ever conversed with us have acknowledged your Majestie their lawful Queen tam de jure quam de facto as well of right as for your actual possession of the Crown that they pray for you and exhort your Subjects to obey you Fourthly and lastly they profess that it is heresie and contrary to Cotholike faith to think that any man may lift up his hand against Gods Anointed T is true the Petition had no other success with her Majestie then this viz. that Master Shelley who presumed to commit such a Treason as to present it was suffered to be sent to the Marshalsea by order of Secretary Walsingham and there to be kept prisoner to his dying day onely upon this pretence Scilicet because the Councel had not been first acquainted with the business Howbeit by this supplication the world may cleerly see They answer the Six Articles which in those times used to be so commonly and captiously propounded to such men framed by Doctor Hammon viz. Whither the Queen were lawful Queen notwithstanding the sentence Decleratory of Pope Pius Quintus against her whither that sentence were to be obeyed in althings Whither the Pope by such sentence could give her Subjects any lawful Authority to rebel or depose her c. For if she be their lawful Sovereign notwithstanding that sentence and that obedience and loyalty be due unto all lawful Princes by the Law of God and of nature it is easie to see what must be said to such questions According also as Bishop Watson Abbot Fecknam Doctor John Harpsfeild Doctor Nicholas Harpsfeild with others who were very often and rigidly examined upon them yet professed perpetually obedience to her Majestie tanquam verae Reginae as unto their true and lawful Sovereign Yea saith Doctor Nicholas Harpsfeild reported by Goldastus a Protestant Ego regalem ejus Authoritatem Goldast de Monar Sac. Imp. Rom. c. I do acknowledge saith he her Royal Authority in all Temporal and Civil affair without exception They presented the like humble supplication to his Majestie that now reigneth some while after the discovery of that wicked and desperate Plot of the Gun-powder-treason another to the Parliament then sitting and another to the Earl of Salisbury in all of them professing the same things And though it hindred not the passing of some severe Acts against Catholikes in that Parliament occasioned as I suppose by that foul and horrid attempt yet the King himself in his Proclamation published upon that subject gratiously professeth his opinion of the generality of his Catholike Subjects viz. That they did abhor such a detestable Conspiracy no less then himself True it is F. Garnet suffered for concealing that Treason and Sir Everard Digby for contributing in some sort to the security or rather flight of some of the Conspirators But as the one viz. Sir Everard Digby much lamented his ill fortune that he should leave behinde him the memory of so great a stain protesting always that he was never made privy to their design and drift So the other viz. F. Garnet knowing it onely as he did in the way of confession and the Seal of that Sacrament which is Secrecy being by the Doctrine of Catholike Religion and that not without most just and necessary cause esteemed so inviolable it may abate something even in the judgement of man of that Heynousness of guilt and blame whereof all good Christians otherwise must necessarily condemn him In a word how much Catholikes in general and especially Priests do detest rebellion and Treason even in times of greatest affliction and pressure and what Religious observers they are of all just loyalty and obedience to their lawful Princes appears cleerly not onely by a book written in those times by the learned Bishop of Chichester Doctor Christopherson against rebellion but also by the Annotations of the Divines at Rhemes upon the New Testament where Pag. 301. we read thus Subjects saie they are bound in Temporal things to obey even the Heathen being their lawful Kings and to be subject to them for Conscience to observe their Temporal Laws to pay them Tribute to pray for them and to perform all other duties of Natural Allegiance Doctor Kellison in his Survey goeth further giving the reason of this Because saith he Faith is not necessarily required to jurisdiction neither is any Authority lost by the loss of Faith Which is also the Doctrine of Saint Thomas who in his Book Cap. 6. de Regim Princip denieth utterly
layeth not any greater upon the Christians under him All or most of the old Catholike Bishops and Clergy of England died in prisons Antipath of Prelat as Master Prinn himself confesseth of the chiefest of them amâ—ng Rogues Murtherers and Felons in the Marshalsea The rest in Exile for Religion is this no punishment Or was there any other Crime laid to their charge but onely matter of Religion Not to speak of many others Master William Anderson in 45. Elizab. was executed upon no other charge but that he was a Priest and then found to be in England so was Master Barckworth in the year 1600. was this no punishment Anno 35. Elizab. Master Barwis a Citizen of London was executed for being reconciled to to the Church and Master Pormort attainted at least for reconciling him was this no punishment In the year 1575. as Holinshead himself recordeth it for a matter to be noted The Lady Morley the Lady Brown the Lady Guildford were committed all of them to prison onely for hearing Mass and Leases presently made of two Third parts of their Lands was this no punishment I might be infinite in examples of this kinde but it is needless The case is manifest and the sense of the whole Kingdom proclaimes the contrary to what that Author pretendeth convincing his assertion of not a little imposture and calumny To conclude then the loyalty and obedience of these Gentlemen and other people of all sorts which are commonly called Recusants towards their King and the State appears undeniably in all things not only by their humble petitions to his Majesty that now is in the year 1604. and at sundry times since but by their constant and general conformity unto the temporal Government in all Queen Elizabeths Reign by their Protestation made at Ely in the year 1588. where a great many of them were prisoners by some other offers which they made to the Lord North the Queens Lieutenant there and by their justification of them afterwards by their submâ—ssions sent up to the Lords of the Privy Councel and their profession of all due acknowledgement towards her Majesty notwithstanding the sentence of Excommunication by their readiness to serve her Majesty the State even in that Action of 88. for which they are so calumniated Lastly by the very Irish Recusants joyning their Forces with the Queens at Kinsale in the year 1600. All which Arguments do indeed shew them to be â—ubjects absolutè and not ex conditione or by leave of some other as their adversaries pretend Let the Readâ—r therâ—fore now judge if he please by what hath been said whether to be a Protestant and a loyal â—ubject or a Catholike and a loyal subject be more incompatible things This was the question propounded in the beginning to be declared and it hath been declared I suppose at large both from their doctrinal assertions and constant practises in all parts of Germany France Holland Scotland Genevah and many other Countries of Christendom what kinde of people both Lutherans Calvinist and other sectaries generally are towards their Sovereign Princes It hath bin shewn that the chief scope and end of their endeavours where they come is to set up their several professions by the Sword and violâ—nt resistance of the Civil Magistrate doing but his Office in restraining them according to Law yea with the ruin of the Church and State both that shall oppose them This I say both the Lutheran s n Germany the Hugonets of France the Gâ—uses of Hâ—lâ—and the Protestants and Puritans in all other places where they could have so apparently done or attempted to doe that there is neither colour of excuse for it nor liberty to deny it The World knoweth what was endeavored in Germany against the Emperor in France how long continued they in Armes against their Sovereign Prince viz. till they had by force not to say contrary to his Oath extorted from him such Edicts of Pacification as themselves liked And that in Holland and Scotland where they had the fortune to become Masters they renounced and deposed their Princes absolutely On the other side let us consider how far it is from being true that wherewith so many Books in England have abused the people viz. That to be a Priest or a Roman Catholike and a good Subject withall is impossible They are things inconsistent with one another For if we look back to former times we shall easily finde that from the Saxons to King Henry the Eighth it was never made so much as a quâ—stion To be a Catholike was never held any bar to Loyalty and yet the Princes had their differences somtimes with the Pope even then And in the grounds of Catholike Faith there is certainly nothing contrary unto civil obedience and duty towards the temporal Magistrate Witness the Government of the Sacred Roman Empire of the Kingdoms of Spain France Poland and many other Christian Principalities and States All which differing in their several constitutions or particular formes of Governing yet doe generally and unanimously account him the bâ—st Subject and least dangerous to the State who is most of all devoted to Catholike Religion It is not therefore malum in se simpliciter whatsoever Doctor Morton or Parson White say it is not an evil intrinsecal to Priesthood nor essentially folloâ—ing the profession of Catholike Religion to be an evil subject If it happens to prove so at any time it is ex accidente and from the voluntary wickedness of particular men if not as too often it doth from some evil constitution of State in which the profession of Catholike Religion hath been unduly subverted and is as unjustly prohibited and punished Neither can it be verified of Catholike Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or universally as sedition and troubling the Civil Government is apparently chargeable upon Calvinism and the other several professions of Protestancy Therefore surely it was an errour both uncivil and indiscreet in those Doctors to frame their proposition so general onely to make us odious and suspected with his Majestie who yet we hope understands us better then so and knows that the imputation is groundless and meerly passionate We deal not so with them We are ready to acknowledge that as to particular persons there are many especially among the Protestants of England of more calm and moderate dispositions of no such fiery zeal as works in many other of their Brethren abroad Boni viri boni cives such as we confess to be both good men and good Subjects of sociable nature obsequious not inclined to Sedition nor desirous to persecute And the like good Testimony doth even the Author of the Execution of English Justice give unto Catholikes acknowledging their obedience and loyalty towards the late Queen and that in a time when they wanted not matter of complaint for the manifold oppressions and afflictions which were heavy upon them T is true every man may be supposed to wish the advancement of his
Doctrine a condemned Doctrine a Doctrine so far as Doctrin can barely be not only of dangerous but of damnable malignity being contrary to the Doctrine and Institutions of true Christian Religion which our Saviour by his Apostles left unto the Church to be professâ—d and observed for ever and therfore in it self of such nature that it ought to be deposed by all men who desire to be saved and in profession whereof no man living may securely rest This we say of their Doctrine But as to the persons of Protestants themâ—elves viz. how far their personal errour in the profession thereof is voluntary and affectate what means of better information they do neglect against how much light that is inward knowledge and perswasion of minde that Catholike Religion is true they doe sin or what secret doubtings they have that it may be true what inward stirrings and checks of conscience they doe stifle in themselves and persist in a way which their own hearts suspect meerly for temporal ends and because it stands better with their designs of this world that is the present interests of their honouâ—s reputation ease pleasure profit c. or lastly how far their ignorance of the truth may be perhaps invinc ble which where it is so excuseth much of all this we say nothing God onely knoweth how things are with them in these respects not man no not the men themselves and therefore as concerning their persons to his judgemâ—nt onely we must leave them This business therefore viz. of Protestants being counted Heretikes by us is but a Bug-bear a Scar-crow set up on purpose by those our Adversaries who would have the difference and aversions which they have bred betwixt us to be immortal Rather it were to be wished by all honest men of what perswasion soever that a just and equitable liberty in matters of conscience were granted unto all if but for this onely respect viz. That so by a free confident and friendly conversing one with another void of suspition void of jealousie fear danger to one party or other and by amicable discourse and debating of things truth might come to be more cleerly discoverded and we might be able through Gods grace mutually to give and receive good one of another But this is a work which hath so much of God and goodness in it that we cannot but expect many adversaries should appear against it However those Doctors Boutefeux should doe well to remember if they pleas'd that even by the Law of Seniority Catholikes might expect some little favour For we beseech them to tell us upon what Patrimony doe themselves and families now live but that which the right Heirs of the Church dis-inherited indeed or disseized by the power of the State have left them What Priviledges Immunities Honours have they but what the old Church gave them What Churches have they either Cathedral Collegiate or Parochial which She built not What Colledges which She founded or endowed not Nay whence have they their Bible the Creed the Ceremonies or any thing else that is good and commendable among them but from Her If She had not preserved them faithfully to their hands they had never found them Shall Charity then be for ever so buried in England that the posterity of those from whom they must confess to have received these great advantages shall never be remembred by them never be used with equity and common justice It were too great a shame surely to lye long upon such a Nation as this and a defect of Government which all Nâ—tions about us would observe Beside let our Adversaries remember what the French commonly say Chacum á son tour and we in England A dog hath a day Religion here with us since King Henry the Eighth wore the Crown hath had many changes and exchanges as the world knoweth and the principles on which it now standeth are not thought to be so fixed and unmoveable but that it may take one turn more All things are in the hands of God and whatsoever he hath determined in the Counsel of his Divine wisdom must stand and take effect in its appointed due time say we or do we to the contrary what we can And therefore let our hot Brethren the Calvinists who can themselves so little endure the severity of Bishops let them not further promote nor hold up persecution against any body else least in an howre when they think lest of it the mischief which they wish to others fall upon their own heads and that they finde themselves not onely out of the Saddle where they would be but in the Mire under the Horse belly and so obnoxious as they may have need of favor themselves They desire nothing more then Liberty of Conscience in their own way fulness of liberty to themselves let them be perswaded also to grant the same unto others That this is but equal reason it self will tell us And that persecution for matter of Religion is not always the best means to advance religion is the judgement of as wise and learned men even of their own profession as any they can shew for the contrary What Luthers opinion was in the point I value no much because the world did not take him for a man very learned or very wise although by Gods permission he did much mischief in it for his time as a simple Conjurer though he be neither Mathematician nor Philosopher himself yet by the help of the Devil may raise a storm able to confound all the Sciences Nevertheless what he thought appears in his Assertions Art 33. de non comburendis Haereticis Vrbanus Rhegius Wolfgangus Musculus famous men and Protestants both of them in their Common places are much against persecution for Religion So is Osiander Epitom Centur. 7. Chytraeus in Chron. 1593. Castalio and others But above all Acontius in his Book de Stratagemat Satan is most earnest Dominus non permittit haereticorum supplicium imò definitè declaravit interdixit c. God saith he doth not permit nor allow that Hereticks should be thus punished yea he hath expresly declared his minde to the contrary and forbidden the Magistrate to exercise any such Authority upon them Calvin once that is till he had setled himself in power at Genevah held the same opinion and was much for Liberty of Conscience Hen. 2. when Annas Burges died for Heresie in France Of the same judgement also is Monsieur Lanou in his Discourses Sturmius in his Epistles Bâ—lloy Melancthon and many other professed and earnest Protestants Not to mention Erasmus Cassander Grotius or any other of that middle temper And as for matter of example or practise do not the Cantons in Switzerland agree well enough in Temporal things notwithstanding their difference in Religion is mutual Toleration of one another in their several judgements that way any prejudice to the publike peace Are there any people under Heaven more happy and free then they or more likely to
continue such so long as they keep under some few fiery zealots that would still be blowing the coals of dissention among them Not to speak of Sweden Denmark c. doth not that famous Kingdom of Poland Tolerate diversity of Religions doth not the great Emperor of Mosko the same and is not the general Unity of their Subiects which ariseth thereupon and would certainly be otherwise if the Government were otherwise is it not a Wall of Brass to both of them against their great enemy the Turk Let Germany also be our example that vast Nation and people no less Magnanimous and Stout is not Toleration judged expedient among them could any thing else cure their troubles Let us consider how peacably and happily Catholikes and Lutherans have conversed and lived there together for no less then an Hundred years and upwards without any dissention without any trouble upon the account of Religion save onely what Ambition and the factious Spiritedness of some particular Princes have bred and brought upon the Country much against the will of the people under that pretence No man doubteth but Charls the Fifth Emperor and Ferdinand his Brother were in their times great and wise Princes yet found they no better means to redress the troubles of State then by commanding Vt utraque pars caveret c. That special care should be had on both sides to compel no man to make profession of Religion otherwise then in his own Conscience he should be perswaded was best As Dresserus a Protestant relates it rejecting with much disdain the contrary opinion of some who as he saith would have but one Religion onely professed in the Empire And for France the case and condition of affairs there is notorious to all the world Nor could that Kingdom ever be brought to quiet till the Calvinists therein were brought upon their knees that is to such pass as to be glad of and to bâ—gge for that favorable Toleration of their profession from the King which themselves in no parts of the world beside will grant to others What reason can be given by indifferent men why the policy of England should be so singular and so differing from that of all other Christian Kingdoms and Nations about her Why should our Government be more severe in this point and more Sanguinary then that of our Neighbors It may seem to reflect something upon the honor of our Nation to mention the Turk in this case Yet certainly it cannot be denied but that Christians live quietly in his Dominions and upon conditions so easie that I am perswaded the Catholikes of England would be well contented with the like If onely it be determined that we must purchase that with our money which all other our fellow-subjects the people of this Nation do enjoy freely and count it their natural right In a word therefore to conclude seeing that both in the judgement of Protestant Divines and in the practice of Protestant Princes and States Toleration of diverse Religions is held neither unlawful nor unexpedient in Government and seeing that for so long a time of afflictions persecution of our Priests and other manifold pressures upon us for matters of Conscience Catholikes have yet through the grace of God demeaned themselves so loyally and obsequiously in all points as they have not done or attempted to do upon their own account or for the interest and advancment of their own profession any thing offensive to the State or prejudicial to the publike peace seeing that nothing can be fastned upon them in that kinde with any colour of truth but onely the business of the Gun-Powder-Treason and seeing that was a devise though acted by the hands of some desperate and wicked Catholikes yet contrived rather by the Devil and some crafty Enemies which we had in the State to make us eternally odious and suspected in the Nation and to disoblige some great person of his promises in favor of us as it may be justly thought considering what kinde of States-men sate at the Helme in those times what knowing men D' Ossat Lettres liur 2. ep 43. Pryns Antip. of Prelat P. 151. strangers abroad have writ and what Protestants themselves at home have discovered since upon that subject Seeing that Catholikes always wished well to his Majesties Title and prayed for his happy succession to these Kingdoms seeing we were not of Counsel with those who sent Beal into forreign parts to promote the Titie of Suffolk nor that set Hales on work at home as he did with law and little art to make it good nor that procured Sir N. B. to make a nest for the Phaenix by such a great volum as he wrote to that purpose Seeing that we were ever Champions to his Majesties just claim Especially Sir Anthony Brown that wise and noble Author of the Book against Leicester and that Aiax of the Law whom no man ever durst encounter in this cause Master Plâ—ydon We hope so long and so try'd fidelity will by the Kings gracious favor procure us at last some liberty and refreshment and that our humble supplication shall be considered wherein casting our selves down at the feet of our Sovereign and of the State we beg onely of them in those words of the Poet. Hanc animam concede mihi Tua caetera sunto Let our souls be left free unto God and as for our Bodies or Estates take them dispose of them freely as Justice requireth and in due proportion with our Neighbors and other the good people of the Nation for the service of the Kingdom and of the publike AN APPENDIX Concerning LUTHERS Mission I Was now going out of the field but behold an Ambush appears which is laid to surprize me it pretends at one charge to rout all the forces of my arguments and to bereave me of my hopes of Victory by eluding rather then disproving of what I have said It is a reply which some men are pleased to make in behalf of Luther whose heat and irregular vehemency which I call sedition was nothing but zeal say they of Gods honor and truth which burning within his own breast happened to kindle some lively sparks also in others They say that Luther was Elias a Prophet sent immediately and extraordinarily by God to reform the errors and corruptions of the world to restore vertue and good life to detect Antichrist who had for so many ages bewitched the whole Church with his impostures and seduced her into Idolatrie and Heresie And that therefore such a Prophet was not to be tedder'd as it were and bound up to the rules of ordinary professors But if he neglected Authority despised the Laws abused and insulted upon the Majestie of Princes disturbed the peace and tranquility of their States we are not to wonder nor lay it to his charge It was no more then a Prophet might do Tune es qui conturbas Israel did not Ahab say to Elias Art not thou he which troublest Israel The